Congratulations to Valentina Gunina for winning the European Champion 2012

Chess blog for latest chess news and chess trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2012


Hi everyone,


Congratulations to Russian national team member and the talented IM Valentina Gunina for winning the women's chess champion of Europe. She kept her head down, played steady chess on course to the title - which she won on Tuesday - in the beautiful city of Gaziantep in Turkey.

Till Tuesday morning, we all knew it wasn't going to be easy. The young IM went into the last round right behind GM Anna Muzychuk who was already a full point ahead of the field and needed just a draw to life the trophy.


But, Muzychuk was betrayed by her Bishop - in the last phase of the game which had largely steered towards a draw. Gunina won the title on better tiebreak. In another game, Tatiana Kosintseva beat Nana Dzagnidze to join Gunina and Muzychuk in shared first place. Tatiana took the second place as Muzychuk had to settle for third. Defending champion Viktorija Cmilyte was right behind at fourth place. Top 14 players qualified for the next World Cup!

The Turkish Chess Federation, by the sponsorship and support of Gaziantep Metropolitan Municipality, under the auspices of the City of Gaziantep and the European Chess Union, has provided the prize fund of 150.000 EUR for all three events. This is the biggest prize fund in the history of European Women Chess events.

Also for the first time the European Women Champion will get the higher prize (20,500 EUR) compared to the winner of the European Individual Championship, which will be held later this month in Plovdiv.
You can access the official website here for more details. The rapid and blitz events are still to be played.


From Alexandra Kosteniuk's
www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com