Gaprindashvili, Laznicka win György Marx Chess Festival

Fifth Women's World Ches Champion Nona: Chess is forever

Hello Everyone,

Former world women's chess champion Georgian Nona Gaprindashvili - the legendary fifth women's world champion to be precise - has won the women's section of the György Marx Memorial 2010. The Chess Festival was held in Paks, Hungary from August 5-16, 2010. Paks is situated south-west of the Hungarian capital Budapest on the River Danube.

In 1961, at the age of 20, Gaprindashvili won the fourth women's Candidates Tournament, setting up a title match against Russian world champion Elisabeth Bykova. She won the match and successfully defended her title four times. Eventually she lost her crown in 1978 to another Georgian, 17-year-old Maia Chiburdanidze.

Gaprindashvili played for Soviet Union in the Chess Olympiads of 1963, 1966, 1969, 1972, 1974, 1978, 1980, 1982, 1984, 1986, 1990, and for Georgia in 1992. She was one of the contributing players of the USSR team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s. During her career Gaprindashvili successfully competed in men's tournaments, winning (amongst others) the Hastings Challengers tournament in 1963/4 and tying for first place at Lone Pine in 1977, earning a grandmaster norm. It is nice to see her play again. Though, she now takes part in only one tournament a year. There is a cup named after her which is given to those men and women chess players who got the most point on a Chess Olympiads.

Meanwhile, the men's section at the Memorial Chess Tournament was won by Viktor Laznicka.

The men's sectionfeatured six Grandmasters - Zoltan Almasi (the first 2700+ player at the event), Ferenc Berkes, Viktor Laznicka, Peter Acs, Jan Timman, and Ray Robson (the first American ever to participate). The average rating of the participants was 2629 making it a category 16 event.

The women's section included IM Ildikó Mádl, WGM Lilit Galojan, IM Tatiana Kononenko, GM Nona Gaprindashvili, IM Szidónia Vajda, and WIM Lili Tóth. The average rating was 2347.

The Memorial also included Rapid, Blitz and Kids' Sections. You can check the official website here.

Here is a nice game by Toth-Gaprindashvili game that you can see in our pgnplayer or flashplayer below.

PGN: 1. e4 b6 2. d4 Bb7 3. Nc3 e6 4. Be3 g6 5. Qd2 d5 6. e5 Ne7 7. Bd3 Nf5 8. Bxf5 gxf5 9. Nh3 Be7 10. Qe2 h5 11. Nf4 h4 12. O-O-O Nd7 13. g4 fxg4 14. Qxg4 Nf8 15. Nh5 Qd7 16. Ng7+ Kd8 17. f4 Ba6 18. f5 Kc8 19. f6 Bb4 20. Nb1 Ng6 21. Rhg1 Rg8 22. Qf3 Kb7 23. a3 Bf8 24. Nh5 Rh8 25. Nf4 Nxf4 26. Bxf4 c5 27. dxc5 bxc5 28. Nc3 Qc6 29. Bg5 Kc7 30. Rde1 Rb8 31. Rg4 Qb6 32. Nd1 d4 33. Bxh4 Bb7 34. Qg3 Bd5 35. Rg7 c4 36. Rxf7+ Kc6 37. Rxf8 Rhxf8 38. Bg5 Rf7 39. Bh6 Rd7 40. Rf1 c3 41. bxc3 Qb1+ 42. Kd2 Be4 43. Ke1 Qxc2 44. Rf2 Qa4 45. f7 Rb1 46. Rd2 Rxf7 47. Rxd4 Qc2 48. Qe3 Bd5 49. Rd2 Qf5 50. Qe2 Kc7 51. c4 Bf3 52. Qe3 Bb7 53. Qc5+ Bc6 54. Qxa7+ Kc8 55. Qg1 Qxe5+ 56. Be3 Rg7 57. Qf2 Rg8 58. h4 Qe4 59. Rb2 Qh1+ 60. Kd2 Rxb2+ 0-1

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

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