Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk Wins Blitz Gold at Sport Accord World Mind Games 2012 in Beijing

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

BREAKING NEWS:
 

Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk with the women's Gold medal and GM Sergey Karjakin - also of Russia - with the men's gold medal in the Sport Accord Blitz.

JUST IN: Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk has just won the Gold in the Blitz Tournament at the Sport Accord World Mind Games 2012 in Beijing. Showing an incredible determination, the 12th Women's World Chess Champion led from the start and obtained a total of 11.5 points in 15 rounds over two days. That netted +76 Elo points to Alexandra, whose new Blitz rating will go from 2505 to 2581 at the end of the year.

These points included a record streak of six straight wins in the first rounds and a total of 11 wins, more than anybody in the tournament.  

The finish was extremely exciting as GM Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia caught up and even passed GM Kosteniuk by a half point before the last round. But Alexandra won her last round against Anna Zatonskih of the USA, while Anna drew Elisabeth Paehtz, in the tiebreaks Alexandra came our first due to her win in their direct encounter. 

1. Gold: Alexandra Kosteniuk (center)
2. Silver: Anna Muzychuk (left)
3. Bronze: Elisabeth Paehtz (right)

This was one of the strongest blitz chess tournaments this year with all the top names like former world champions Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova, Koneru Humpy, Kateryna Lahno, and others. Incidentally, GM Kosteniuk beat both Hou Yifan and Antoaneta Stefanova in the tournament. 

Chess Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk with her blitz gold medal along with (left) GM Anna Muzychuk (silver) and GM Elizabeth Paehtz (bronze) at the awards ceremony in Beijing on Monday. 

More details would be updated soon on her personal blog www.chessqueen.com.

		Name	Rtg		Pts	wins	SB
1	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2505	RUS	11½	11	81.75
2	GM	Muzychuk Anna	2606	SLO	11½	10	77.25
3	IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	2517	GER	9½	8	66.75
4	GM	Koneru Humpy	2535	IND	9½	7	67.25
5	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2524	LTU	8	6	52.50
6	GM	Harika Dronavalli	2329	IND	7½	5	56.00
7	GM	Zhu Chen	2418	QAT	7½	7	50.75
8	GM	Hou Yifan	2606	CHN	7	6	55.25
9	IM	Khotenashvili Bela	2465	GEO	6½	6	45.75
10	GM	Lahno Kateryna	2538	UKR	6½	5	45.50
11	GM	Cramling Pia	2433	SWE	6½	3	47.75
12	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2571	BUL	6	5	41.00
13	GM	Danielian Elina	2432	ARM	6	5	39.50
14	IM	Zatonskih Anna	2489	USA	6	5	44.50
15	GM	Socko Monika	2430	POL	5½	4	34.75
16	GM	Zhao Xue	2518	CHN	5	3	33.25

Alexandra Kosteniuk is used to do well in blitz, see her wins in video against Morozevich, Aronian,  Grischuk, Anand.

A very determined Kosteniuk in Beijing wins Blitz Gold


Here is the first round game Kosteniuk - Hou:

Alexandra Kosteniuk - Hou Yifan

Result: 1-0

Site: Sport Accord Blitz Beijing 2012

Date: December 15, 2012

[...] 1.e4 c5 The Sicilian Defense 2.¤f3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.¤xd4 ¤f6 5.¤c3 e6 6.¥e2 ¤c6 7.¥e3 ¥e7 8.O-O O-O 9.f4 a6 10.a4 ¥d7 11.¤b3 b6 12.¥f3 £c7 "General opening development hs taken place, now it's time for making a plan"
13.g4! "The attack starts!" 13...¥c8 14.g5 ¤d7 15.¥g2! Gives passage to the Queen to h5 and to the rook to f3 then h3
15...¥b7 16.£h5 ¦fe8 17.¦f3 +0.00* 17...g6 N "Novelty"

(17...¤b4 was played before 18.¦h3 ¤f8 19.£e2 d5 20.£f2 ¤d7 21.f5 exf5 22.¦f1 "and the attack continues...1-0, Milov Leonid 2463 - Uwira Oliver 2282 , Dotzheim 2002 It (open)")

18.£h6 ¥f8 19.£h4 ¥g7 20.¦h3 ¤f8 "Now it seems all key squares around the black king are defended, h8, h7, h6"
21.f5! ¥xc3 22.f6 "! N" Now the threat of Qh7 and mate on g7 is too strong, even giving back the Bishop with Bxf6 does not help"

(22.bxc3 "would have been a mistake since" 22...exf5 23.exf5 ¤e7 and both black knights are holding the key squares.)

22...h5 23.¥f3! This Bishop will sacrifice itself on h5 for a crushing attack to take place on the column h +4.76*
23...¥xf6 24.gxf6 ¤e5 25.¥xh5! +31.1025...¤h7 +299.9626.¥e2 and mate on either h7 or h8 is unavoidable. Hou resigns. An extremely strongly played game by Alexandra Kosteniuk

From Alexandra Kosteniuk's

www.chessblog.com
Also see her personal blog at
www.chessqueen.com
Don't miss Chess Queen™  
YouTube Channel