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hosted by Chess Queen™ & 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk
Friday, April 30, 2010
Golden Tournament Organizer Award Winner 2010
Dear all!
I'm very glad to announce that during the last FIDE Presidential Board meeting, the Women's International 8th of March Tournament was awarded the title of the FIDE Golden Women's Tournament Organizer Award!
This tournament has a wonderful and long history, you can read more about it here.
According to the regulations of this award, the organizers of this event will receive a prize of $1000 which they should use for increasing the prize fund for women chess players in their next tournaments.
During the last FIDE Presidential Board, according to the voting that took place from January 1 to February 20, 2010, the FIDE Caissa Award 2010 was awarded to Nadezhda Kosintseva.
The prize of 1000 euro (from the budget of the FIDE Commission for women's chess) and the statuette shall be awarded to Nadezhda during the Chess Olympiad 2010 in Khanty-Mansiisk.
I congratulate Nadezhda on this wonderful award and wish her to continue to show great result in the future!
Some of you may have heard that Google has requested all bloggers who use their Blogger FTP method of posting to their own domain names, to migrate to a different system, hosted by Google. The reason given was that FTP publishing is a drain on Google's resources and they want to simplify.
The simplest way to "migrate" is to throw in the towel and accept to move all our posts to a blogspot account, but I did not want to do that, as it is considerably better to have one's blog on one's own domain, in my case www.chessblog.com.
The "advanced" instructions to move from "www" to "www" can be found here. While it's not as straightforward as the instructions make it believe, I had no trouble to move the blog itself, the tough part was to find a way to set up the "Total DNS" at my Registrar to point to the location on my old site where my old images are located.
After allowing some time for the DNS propagation to take place, about 6 hours, my blog is complete again and ready to serve you new fresh posts about the world of Women's Chess!
Thanks to everyone who warned me of the coming changes, and who offered hints on how to migrate, I sincerely appreciate your help!
Please follow me on Twitter (both "chessqueen" and "chessblogcom"), and facebook. That's where I post the freshest news.
I just got the official brochure of next month's trip to Peru. As for Colombia last week, it will be very busy: I will be giving conferences & simuls, playing a tournament with the 7 strongest youth chess players of Peru, in both Rapid and Blitz time controls. But the high point for me will be a 2-game match played at the top of the Machu Picchu (that's one of the 7 wonders of the world!) against Peru's top youth hopeful, Deysi Cori. I look forward to that match very much!
So if you will be in Peru between May 21 and 25, mark your calendar! See the schedule on the brochure below.
This is a short post to share with you some photos from Dubai which I took last night. Dubai is amazing, and the conference Sport Accord allows me to meet very interesting people, who can help with the promotion of chess. Ludovic is one of them, he helped make the Chess for Peace project in Puerto Tejada a reality, I thank him for that immensely! I also gave an interview to push for chess to join the Olympic Games, see it here.
More about what I'm doing in Dubai in a later post!
I just read today on the Andina News Agency that next month I will play a match with Deysi Cori right at the top of the Machu Picchu!
I am glad that my Peruvian trip is working out, there will be many more events in Peru, and as soon as I have the full schedule, I will publish it.
For the moment, here is the text of the article (original link):
Peru's Deysi Cori to face world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in Machu Picchu
Lima, Apr. 23 (ANDINA).- Peru's U-16 world champion Deysi Cori Tello announced she will play reigning women's world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in the Inca citadel of Machu Picchu.
“I’ll have a match against women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in Machu Picchu within a month. It’s going to be very interesting. I’m already training,” Daysi told RPP radio.
Deysi Cori, the only female player from Peru to hold the Grandmaster title, said she just spent three months in Europe together with her brother Jorge training for the upcoming international chess competitions, such as the Chess Olympiad in Russia and the World Junior and Girls U20 Chess Championships in Poland.
In November 2009, Daysi and Jorge Cori obtained the title of chess International Grandmasters in the U-16 and U-14 categories respectively at the last World Youth Chess Championship 2009 in Turkey.
The siblings were honored by the government in December 2009 for their accomplishments, and each of them received a check for 15,000 soles and a laptop; as well as US$ 22,000 for their trips during 2010.
As many of you may be aware from my Twitter or Facebook, I am now in Dubai, at the large Sport Accord Convention, helping to promote chess.
Gulf news published today an article (I reprint below from this original link) about my thoughts of having chess become an Olympic Sport. Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments about this issue!
World champion chess player pushes for Olympic status
25 year old says under-rated game has unlimited potential
By Alaric Gomes, Senior Reporter, Gulf News. Published: April 28, 2010
Dubai: She is cute, young, attractive and as the reigning world chess champion 25-year-old Alexandra Kosteniuk is pushing vigorously to have chess included as an Olympic sport in the not-too-distant future.
"My desire is to help chess and support the movement of having chess as an Olympic sport one day," Kosteniuk told Gulf News along the sidelines of the SportAccord International Convention at The Atlantis.
"My reason for coming here is to tell people about chess and to impress upon the International Olympic Committee (IOC) the need to have chess as an Olympic sport," she said.
Born in 1984 in the Russian city of Perm, Kosteniuk showed tremendous talent from an early stage. The Women's World Champion since 2008, Kosteniuk wants to get rid of the notion that chess has been under-rated.
Potential
"I have always considered chess as a sport," she said. "Unfortunately, it is not as popular as it used to be. But chess has a lot of potential worldwide as we have 171 affiliated federations. And after spending all my life in the sport, I now see the need to help chess in some way."
In fact, Kosteniuk has been doing a lot of work to promote chess including travelling, seminars, and lectures.
"This is a very interesting sport and it helps a lot of kids," she said. "I love chess very much and I want to share this passion with the world. I believe chess deserves much more attention."
The pretty Russian believed her approach was working for the good of the sport.
The sport has witnessed a renaissance of sorts with an increased following in recent times, partly due to such initiatives from FIDE, the world governing body for the sport.
"We have to move on," she said. "We need to find better ways of working and operating, with the sponsors and with the media.
"We have a huge advantage in chess as the distance really doesn't matter. The world is changing and life is faster nowadays."
Kosteniuk inaugurates Chess for Peace in Puerto Tejada
Hello everybody!
I am glad to report, that just a little over one month after the official announcement of my becoming a Champion for Peace, I was able to inaugurate the Chess for Peace Program in the town of Puerto Tejada, not far from Cali, Colombia.
The official photo album of the event is on ChessPics. Some of them:
With the Mayor of Puerto Tejada and
2 kids wearing the program t-shirt
Kids came from Popayan to
be present at the inauguration
The autograph session
I would like to thank all the organizations and people who made this inauguration a reality: FIDE, Colombianitos, Peace and Sport. They contribute to a better tomorrow and give hope to so many kids in difficult areas of the world. I sincerely hope that this program will take off, that many kids will start loving chess and succeed in school, and in their lives. I am thankful also to chess for helping!
I am glad to be part of this movement, that I can share my love of chess with all those young smiling faces. I hope I can come back to Puerto Tejada in the future and see many kids playing chess!
May all the wars in the world be conducted only on the chess board, that's my dearest wish!
I've been quite busy. Right after coming back from Colombia on April 22, the next day (on my birthday) I drove North 3 hours to get to the city of Indialantic, Florida (about one hour from Orlando), where the yearly Space Coast Chess Festival takes place.
Space Coast Event poster
I was to give a 50-board simul at 8AM on April 24. I thank the organizers of the Festival who gave me and my family the best room of the hotel, with a breathtaking view on the ocean, it was magnificent.
As for the simul, it went very well, 46 people turned up at this early hour, and I achieved the result of 42 wins, 3 draws (to Dr. Axel Stock from UCF, John Ludwig, and Eric Perlman), and one loss to Wayne Strickland. Congratulations to all for doing their best and thereby promoting the game of chess!
Eric Perlman kept me in a very tough
position during the whole game
The official photo album of the event is here. If you are a participant, feel free to email me and I can send you any of the photos in high resolution at no cost to you.
10th women's world chess champion Antoaneta Stefanova was also born on April 19 but 10 years later, in 1979
12th women's world chess champion - me ;) Alexandra Kosteniuk was born on April 23, 1984.
The same birthday - April 23 - as me is shared by Pia Cramling (born on April 23, 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) and Lela Javakhishvili who was also born on April 23, 1984.
Two strong russian chess players Tatiana Kosintseva (born April 11, 1986 in Arkhangelsk) and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (born April 17, 1974) also celebrated their birthdays this month.
The chinese player Zhao Xue was also born in April (born April 6, 1985 in Jinan, Shandong).
This is the photo of today's 25 participants to the Tarrito Rojo Chess Talent 2010 simul, that took place in Bogotá's biggest mall, the Gran Estación.
The 25 players were the winners of the Tarrito Rojo Chess Talent 2010 tournament, which took place last month, and in which over 500 kids took part, in categories U-8, U-10, U-12, U-14, and U-16.
The result of the simul was +21 =4 -0.
Tomorrow I fly to Medellin for more chess fiestas, will post more news and photos later!
With many of the wonderful kids of the Fundación Pies Descalzos
This was one of the best simuls in my life, as soon as one board finishes, another kid jumps in!
The kids of Pies Delcalzos were smiling today - thanks to chess!
Hello everyone!
Above you can see 3 photos from yesterday in Bogotá, Colombia. where I am participating in the final events around the Tarrito Rojo Chess Talent 2010, organized by the local company JGB. I had a very big day, starting from the Press Conference, where I played a simul with journalists and kids, and giving lots of interviews. See one short TV clip on Caracol TV here.
But the high point of the day for me was a visit to Shakira's foundation "Pies Dascalzos", which is a home for very underprivileged kids about 1-2 hours away from Bogotá. Together with the brand Tarrito Rojo, we made donations of chess sets and free vitamin supplements, very needed in poor areas. As you can see from the photos, the kids were incredibly excited to see me, I played a simul in extremely cramped quarters with many kids, who kept taking over from their friends. The photo sessions were amazing, I love those smiles, those kids are precious! I hope they will enjoy the chess sets, and that chess will give them many hours of joy in the difficult economic situation they are in.
Tomorrow I will have a big simul in Bogotá, pictures of this event to come very soon!
The link to this secret video is at the end of this post
Hello all!
Tomorrow April 16, I will be flying to Colombia (first Bogotá, then Medellin, finally Cali) where I will spend one week on a big promotional event: the Tarrito Rojo Chess Talent 201o. On the last day of my trip, April 21, I will inaugurate the wonderful Champions for Peace program for kids in Puerto Tejada to be able to learn and play chess.
I will try to keep you posted about it but my schedule will be very tight, I will need to get up every morning at 5 - 5-30 am which is so early for me, and the program each day runs till late at night. But for sure you will be able to read about it on my Twitter feed.
A few posts ago I promised to tell you more about the Russian Team Championship in Dagomys. I played some good games (such as the games against Romanko and also the one against Cmilyte) and at the same time I had some disastrous loses (against Stefanova and Zhukova). Overall I did 3/6 and a performance of 2475, lower than my current rating of 2524. In the women's tournament everything was decided on the first board in the game between Natalia Zhukova and Victorija Cmilyte. Natalia had some advantage but in time trouble Viktorija was more precise and was able to win the game, which led her team of Saint-Petersburg to gold medals.
Meanwhile the strong Third Kuala Lumpur Open in Malaysia was won by the 16-year old Hou Yifan who took 7,5 points out of 9 and finished on the clear first place, congratulations to her!
To finish this post I'm offering you a TOP secret video of my recent training with the "Chess Terminator" ROBOT my father created. Just don't tell anybody my secret training method! ;-)
I was traveling so much last days and barely was able to check my mail. After the Russian Team Chess Championship in Dagomys, I flew immediately to Novosibirsk to take part in the forum about the development of Siberia. The next day I flew to Moscow and today after several interviews and meetings I'm finally able to make a short post here. I'll be flying back to Miami on Monday and will try to prepare a post about the most interesting games of Dagomys which was won by the team from Saint-Petersburg with Viktorija Cmilyte playing on the first board.
I just landed in... (more about that in a future post) ;-)
I just wanted to let you know that I finally updated my web shop with new exclusive chess keychains, a perfect gift for your loved ones. The keychains are made of flexible high quality rubber, that will not make holes in your pockets, and that show that you're a chess lover.
For a limited time, there is no shipping for this item, even if you live in Tumbuktu! I will even add for free an autograph to your order.
Those are the keychains I often give away as gifts during my goodwill events around the world, so your buying one or more helps me in promoting chess around the world.
Buy the keychains here (special link for King keychain, and Queen keychain).
I'm in Moscow now, in between two planes, will be flying east in about an hour. I just have time to share with you the poster of my April 24 Space Coast Chess Simul. It's still not too late to sign up.
Tomorrow I'll write about the end of the Russian Team Championship in Dagomys. Our team finished 4th, and I did 3/6, which is a performance of 2475 ELO. The great winner was Viktorija Cmilyte, who only lost one game to me, winning the remaining 4, that's a performance of 2662!
6. U1200 $$600+trophy-300-200. U1000 $300+trophy-200. U800 $200+trophy-100. U1200 plus scores not winning another prize: Book Prize courtesy of Hollywood Kings Chess. Trophies to top Brevard County scholastic players in grades K-3, K-5, K-8, K-12.
Special Prizes - Sponsored by Hollywood Kings Chess.
Top Upsets Rds 1-4: Book Prize
Wojtkiewicz Brilliancy Prizes: 1st $25, 2nd-3rd Book Prize (Judge: IM Javad Maharramzade)
ALL: Players in Master section are required to turn in completed scoresheets at completion of each round (Reference USCF Rule 15G). Rated players may play up one class only. Unrated may play in Master or U1200. Unrated limited to $100 prize unless place prize in Master.
½-point Bye available any round if requested in advance and before round 2 (limit 2). No Smoking. No computers. Wheelchair accessible.
Entry Fee:
$79 via mail or on-line at this web site by 4/17, late entry $89 on line by 4/21 or at site (no credit cards at site); $20 less if unrated or under age 18.
Special EF for Brevard County students in K-12 playing in any section: $20 on-line by 4/21 ($25 at site) (counts as ¼ entry for based on prize fund).
GMs and IMs free entry available on-line until 3/31, else $80 from prize. Free entry to past Master Section winners listed above (use GM/IM entry for on-line registration).
Re-entries $40 by round 3 (½ point Byes for earlier rounds).
Indicate 2-day or 3-day when mailing entry. Entries not indicating which schedule is desired will be placed in the 2-day schedule.
Registration ends 1 hr before 1st round.
Rounds: Rd. 1 8pm Fri (2-day:10am Sat at G/60), Rds 2-5: Sat. 1:00 and 7:00, Sun 9:00 and 3:00.
Hotel Rate: $95, $149 studio kitchenette. Reservations: Hotel phone number 321-777-4100, Group Code CHS. Click here for on-line Hotel reservations. Restaurant, lounge, pool, beach. Plus many other restaurants nearby. VERY IMPORTANT: Reserve early (extended deadline is now 3 P.M. on April 7, but lowest price rooms may run out prior to that date). The group rate is *unlikely* to be available after the cut off date. RESERVE EARLY.
*** Special Event *** World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk Simultaneous Exhibition. Saturday, 8am. Special guest Alexandra Kosteniuk will give a simul on Saturday morning starting at 8am. The tournament schedule has been flexibly organized such that players may easily participate in both the tournament and the simultaneous exhibition (to play in all rounds of the tournament plus the simul, enter the 3 day schedule. The simul is expected to end before the start of round 2. Alternatively, a half point Bye is available for round 1).
A portion of the boards for the simul will be reserved for local students. The remaining reservations will be sold on a first come, first serve basis. GM Kosteniuk’s exhibition’s often sell out quickly, so don't wait! GM Kosteniuk will also sign her books at the event including her latest, Diary of a Chess Queen. See the press release at (http://main.uschess.org/content/view/10163/319/).
Side events:
Space Coast Open Blitz. 4-SS (2 games/Rd), G/5. Prizes: Cash prizes based on entries. EF $10. Rds Sat. 12:30 & 6:30, Sun. 8:30 & 2:30. (i.e., Blitz rounds are prior to rounds 2-5 of main tournament).
Extras and more Side Events:
Free GM and IM lectures:
- Friday: 6:30pm: TBD
- Saturday: 10am: no lecture due to Alexandra Kosteniuk Simul
- Saturday: 11am: no lecture due to Alexandra Kosteniuk Simul
Space Coast Open Massage Therapist $1/minute.
Books and Equipment by Hollywood Kings Chess.
Send Entries to: Space Coast Chess Foundation, c/o Harvey Lerman, 921 N. Thistle Ln, Maitland, FL 32751. PLEASE: no phone or e-mail entries. Credit Card entry available via this web site only. ADVANCE ON-LINE REGISTRATION ENDS April 17, LATE ON-LINE REGISTRATION ENDS April 21.
General Info: Peter Dyson 321-452-9863 (peter200@modusoperandi.com)
Russian Team Chess Championship 2010, Last Round Preview
Hello my friends!
After my unexpected loss in the 4th round to Natalia Zhukova, I came back nicely by beating Viktorija Cmilyte today with Black. So I'm at 2 wins, 2 losses and 1 draw, that's 50% and a performance just below 2500, and one game to go tomorrow. My team of Moscow drew their match today and overall is 4th, but tomorrow hopefully we can do well against the Chigorin Chess Club and pass in front of AVS who is not playing tomorrow, and get a medal. I'll let you know how it goes. For the moment the team Giprorechtrans with Zhukova, Munguntuul, Zaiatz, Vasilevich and Fominykh are leading with 8 match points, and very good chances for the Gold!
All the games, past and live, can be seen on http://livechess.chessdom.com/site/. Here below is my game against Cmilyte, I hope you like it (especially my move 36...f3!):
Russian Team Chess Championship 2010, Round 6 Preview
Hello everyone!
Today April 5 was a tough day, our Moscow team only drew the leaders Giprorechtrans 2-2. Unfortunately I lost my game against Natalia Zhukova, who is in great form, but luckily Valentina Gunina won her game to make up for it. We still have a chance to catch up with the leaders since they are off tomorrow, and we will play the team currently in second position, from St. Petersburg. I'll keep you posted!
Thanks for everyone, especially on Twitter, who have been following and sending such nice messages of support, I sincerely appreciate it!
3 rounds to go at the Russian Team Championships. Tomorrow Monday April 5 will be a key match: the Moscow team (Kosteniuk, Kovalevskaya, Gunina, Matveeva, Girya) will play the Giprorechtrans team (Zhukova, Munguntuul, Zaiats, Vasilevich, Fominykh).
Since there is an odd number of teams, each team does not play a round, and that's the case of Giprorechtrans, who is "off" the last round. So if tomorrow, Giprotechtrans wins, they will be able to solidify their edge. If they lose, the fight for first place will be open to 2-3 teams.
Follow the games live on ChessBomb (7 AM New York time).
Today was a nice day for me and my team, as we won 3.5 - 0.5 and are now in second position. Since there is an odd number of teams, we're off tomorrow, but the key match will be the day after tomorrow, when we will play Giprorechtrans, who is leading with only 1 match point more (up to now we drew twice and won 1 match). See my team record and see the tournament results table.
Below is my game against Marina Romanko, which I won in nice attacking style with Black:
Today was the first round of the very strong Russian Team Championships, taking place in Dagomys, close to Sochi, Russia. Many of the strongest women chess players of the planet are participating, with 5 holding the Grandmaster (GM) title, and the average tournament rating above 2400 ELO. Even though it's the Russian Team Championship, many non-Russian top women are playing for Russian clubs, making it extra strong and interesting.
My team (Moscow) drew today against the team of Economist Saratov 2-2 . I drew my game, playing Black against Chinese Grandmaster Zhao Xue (see photos), rated 2490 FIDE. You can see the game below.
Tomorrow will be an important day, as our team will play AVS Krasnoturyinsk, which is the rating favorite, boasting an average ELO of 2508.
Don't be shy about contacting me
to share women's chess news
or to propose collaboration
Best chess wishes to you! Alexandra Kosteniuk
12th Women's World Chess Champion
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