Gibtelecom (Gibraltar)

Here is a game from Round 3 featuring current Women's World Chess Champion, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS 2523), with the white pieces, versus GM Gata Kamsky (USA 2707 - live rating), with the black pieces.  You can play through the game as GM Kosteniuk's chess blog:

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. e5 Bf5 4. Nf3 e6 5. Be2 c5 6. Be3 Nd7 7. O-O Ne7 8. c4 dxc4 9. Na3 c3 10. Bg5 f6 11. exf6 gxf6 12. Bc1 Nd5 13. Nh4 Bg6 14. Bf3 N7b6 15. dxc5 Bxc5 16. bxc3 Kf7 17. c4 Nb4 18. Be3 Qe7 19. Nxg6 hxg6 20. Qe2 Rad8 21. Rad1 Na4 22. Bxc5 Qxc5 23. Qe4 Nc6 24. Rfe1 e5 25. Nb5 f5 26. Qc2 Nb6 27. Qc1 e4 28. Rxd8 Rxd8 29. Be2 Nd7 30. Rd1 Nf6 31. Rxd8 Nxd8 32. Qd2 Ne6 33. Nd6 Ke7 34. Nxb7 Qb6 35. Na5 e3 36. fxe3 Ne4 37. Qb4 Qxb4 38. Nc6 Kd6 39. Nxb4 Nc3 40. Bf3 a5 41. Nc6 a4 42. a3 Nb1 43. Nd4 Nxa3 44. Nxe6 Kxe6 45. Bd1 Nxc4 1/2-1/2

Chessdom.com is providing coverage and live game commentary, and also nice photographs!  This report of Round 3 action features several of the female players, including a photograph of Ingrid Carlsen, sister of GM Magnus Carlsen (top rated player in the world at the moment and the youngest player to ever achieve this distinction).  Here are brief biographies of some of the players (highest rated and others) from Chessdom, featuring many of the female players.  I'm so happy to see Chessdom devoting equal coverage to the female players; after all, we do make up about 51% of the world population, and more and more females are taking up chess every day, thanks to such organizations as 9Queens, Chess in Schools, and strong female chessplaying role models of the Polgar sisters, Kosteniuk, Stefanova, Zatonskih, Krush, Shahade, Hou Yifan, etc. etc.  I do not think I will live long enough to see it, but ultimately I do believe that relative parity of playing skill will be achieved between females and males.  We just need a lot more female players who toss away the constraints of subtle social gender roles.  Yes, I know - easier said than done!

Gibtelecom/Gibraltar generates tons of coverage - GM Susan Polgar's blog, Mig's Daily Dirt blog, The Week in Chess, Chessbase, Chessdom, Chessvibes, etc. etc. and this doesn't include the official website.  Going up against the stellar line-up at Corus, which is winding down now, is not an easy row to hoe!  But the Gibtelecom/Gibraltar Chess Festival is special because it makes a strong effort to recruit female players and offers great prizes to attract a wide field.  It has gotten progressively stronger every year over it's short (8 year) history.

Women's Prizes for 2010:

Open to all Women 

1st Prize £8,000 
2nd Prize £4,000
3rd Prize £3,000 
4th Prize £2,500
5th Prize £2,000
6th Prize £1,500
7th Prize £1,000
8th Prize £500

Prizes for best relative rating achievement
2350-2150 £500
Under 2150 £250
 
Round 5 today - key pairings for the top chess femmes:
 
Table 2 GM Adams, Michael 3.5 ENG 2694 GM Koneru, Humpy 3.5 IND 2614
Table 7 IM Harika, Dronavalli 3.0 IND 2471 GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco 3.0 ESP 2705
Table 9 IM Zatonskih, Anna 3.0 USA 2466 GM Istratescu, Andrei 3.0 ROU 2607
Table 10 GM Lopez Martinez, Josep Manu 3.0 ESP 2593 WGM Zhukova, Natalia 3.0 UKR 2462

Table 11 IM Krush, Irina 3.0 USA 2455 GM Halkias, Stelios 3.0 GRE 2566
Table16 IM Saravanan, V. 3.0 IND 2356 GM Cramling, Pia 3.0 SWE 2528

Table 17 GM Naumann, Alexander 3.0 GER 2525 IM Zozulia, Anna 3.0 BEL 2321
Table 18 IM Sedina, Elena 3.0 ITA 2335 GM Speelman, Jon S 3.0 ENG 2525
Table 20 Dasaolu, Adeoye 3.0 ENG 2068 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 3.0 GEO 2506