Even an amateur can win a big chess tournament!

Chess news and chess trivia blog (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2011

Hi Everybody,

This is about chess and about Cracow in Poland. But what do you want to hear first:
a) about the girls or
b) about how an amateur who beat grandmasters?

Okay we'll go with the bee-keeper first (damn! - now who said that).

Alexander Zubov with a 2626 performance - winner

of the Cracovia Open.

www.chessbase.com reports that an amateur chess player, IM Alexander Zubov, from Ukraine has won the Cracovia Open (for a second time in succession), held from December 27, 2010 and January 4, 2011 in Cracow, Poland, on tiebreak points. Good news for everyone who was getting disheartened with their results. Needless to add the tournament had about 86 players with six Grandmasters and 14 International Masters.

Alexander, who had also won the Cracovia Open last year told Chessbase that he was not a chess professional. "So what are you doing for living?" Chessbase asked. "In principle, I have a bee-keeping business, we produce honey," he responded. So that should be inspiring for everyone.

Now a little about the girls (and the guys) at the tournament.

The second prize went to IM Marcin Sieciechowicz, who scored his first GM norm. In round eight he won a beautiful game against an FM from Finland. You can find the nice annotations at www.chessbase.com here.

WIM Katarzyna Toma (2234) scored 2424 and her second WGM norm.

13-year-old Jan-Krzysztof Duda (6.5/9) defeated two GMs and scored 2451.

WFM Klaudia Kulon (2208) was

third in the blitz tournament.

WGM Marta Przezdziecka (2249) is one of the leading female players in Poland but didn't do too well here.

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com

Also see her personal blog at

www.chessqueen.com