It's over - and a woman who earned one of the earliest GM titles back in the early 1990s won it with an incredible 9.0/11 - GM Pia Cramling! Yaaaaaahhhhhh! She played and defeated IM Viktorija Cmilyte who led going into the final round. Well done. And GM Monika Socko recovered enough to take over third place.
Here are the top finishers:
Rk. Name FED RtgI Pts. TB1 TB2 TB3 Rp n w we w-we K rtg+/-
1 GM Cramling Pia SWE 2523 9,0 0 61,5 74,5 2677 11 9 7,06 1,94 10 19,4
2 IM Cmilyte Viktorija LTU 2485 8,5 0 59,5 73,5 2622 11 8,5 6,56 1,94 10 19,4
3 GM Socko Monika POL 2465 8,0 0 63,5 77,5 2595 11 8 6,16 1,84 10 18,4
4 GM Kosintseva Tatiana RUS 2524 8,0 0 63,0 76,0 2595 11 8 7,01 0,99 10 9,9
5 GM Sebag Marie FRA 2506 8,0 0 60,5 73,5 2555 11 8 7,34 0,66 10 6,6
6 WGM Zhukova Natalia UKR 2492 8,0 0 60,5 72,5 2556 11 8 7,13 0,87 10 8,7
7 IM Dembo Yelena GRE 2457 8,0 0 57,0 69,5 2545 11 8 6,73 1,27 10 12,7
8 GM Stefanova Antoaneta BUL 2555 7,5 0 65,5 80,5 2552 11 7,5 7,42 0,08 10 0,8
9 IM Muzychuk Anna SLO 2533 7,5 0 63,5 77,0 2550 11 7,5 7,18 0,32 10 3,2
10 IM Kosintseva Nadezhda RUS 2554 7,5 0 61,0 74,5 2540 11 7,5 7,63 -0,13 10 -1,3
11 IM Muzychuk Mariya UKR 2444 7,5 0 61,0 74,5 2550 11 7,5 5,87 1,63 10 16,3
12 IM Khurtsidze Nino GEO 2434 7,5 0 60,5 74,0 2526 11 7,5 6,06 1,44 10 14,4
13 IM Skripchenko Almira FRA 2456 7,5 0 60,0 73,5 2514 11 7,5 6,59 0,91 10 9,1
14 IM Ushenina Anna UKR 2452 7,5 0 58,0 70,5 2511 11 7,5 6,58 0,92 10 9,2
15 IM Rajlich Iweta POL 2459 7,5 0 56,5 70,0 2477 11 7,5 7,16 0,34 10 3,4
16 WFM Ziaziulkina Nastassia BLR 2188 7,5 0 56,5 69,0 2543 11 7,5 2,48 5,02 15 75,3
17 IM Kovalevskaya Ekaterina RUS 2438 7,5 0 53,0 66,0 2457 11 7,5 7,12 0,38 10 3,8
Here's how some of my favorites did (out of 150 players):
36 IM Melia Salome GEO 2467 6,5 0 54,5 65,5 2369 11 6,5 7,82 -1,32 10 -13,2
I figure she's disappointed with her back-to-back losses in Rounds 9 and 10. She has lost ratings points, not a good thing. My guess is she was tired out from a heavy schedule since the beginning of the year.
88 WIM Kazimova Narmin AZE 2212 5,5 0 46,0 56,0 2226 11 5,5 5,03 0,47 15 7,1
98 WGM Calzetta Ruiz Monica ESP 2296 5,0 0 49,0 59,0 2193 11 5 6,01 -1,01 15 -15,1
105 WIM Paikidze Nazi GEO 2322 5,0 0 44,5 56,0 2169 11 5 7,24 -2,24 15 -33,6
GM Susan Polgar has reported at her chess blog: In spite of the loss in the last round, Cmilyte earned an 11 game GM norm. Her rating will also pass 2500. Zhukova also gained nearly 9 points which should put her rating above 2500. Since she already had 3 GM norms, she should be awarded the GM title shortly.
Lots more coverage, of course, at Susan Polgar's blog.
This is good news - we need more women earning GM titles and pushing their ratings up - way up - above 2600. Yeah, I don't ask for too much, do I.
Tie-breaks are tomorrow. I didn't see any awards announced yet for board prizes and officially the medal winners haven't been announced either - at least, when I clicked on the link at the offical website, I got one of those error messages.
Why tie-breaks? Didn't Cramling get clear first?
ReplyDeleteDo you see any chess femme breaking the 2600 barrier soon?
Btw, what are board prizes?
Hello chris,
ReplyDeleteMe bad! I totally screwed up by saying board prizes - since this is an individual tournament, not teams, there are no board prizes. Duh, Jan. Sorry about that. Board prizes only apply in team events, where you have multiple players playing on different boards. Guess I was projecting forward to the Chess Olympiad that will take place this autumn.
The tie-breaks were for 3rd place, which I also mistakenly assumed had gone to GM Monika Socko. Not so - at least - not until after several tie-break games. Socko did secure the bronze medal for herself, and I am very happy for that result, as she played what I thought was a very fine tournament.
I am also assuming that since so many femmes scored 8.0, the tie breaks determined who got what prize - but I'm not certain about that. The official prize page at the official website was silent as to how prize money would be disbursed in the event of "ties." There were also a lot of players who scored 7.5 points, all vying for prize money.
Finally, tie-breaks were also used to determine who qualified for the upcoming Women's World Chess Championship, which I assume will be held this year, as the last one was held in 2008 and they are supposed to be held every two years.
So, is everything clear as mud?
Jan
P.S. Sorry about confusing chris with anonymous. Yes, Cramling got clear first and Cmilyte got clear second. The tie-break games were to determine who won third place - not only to determine the order of prize money but also qualification spots for the Women's World Chess Championship that is supposed to be held in 2010.
ReplyDeleteTo Anonymous, at the present time I am aware of two women who have broken the 2600 ELO barrier: GM Judit Polgar and GM Koneru Humpy.
If you take a look at the current FIDE list of top 20 women chessplayers, you will see where the others are placed relative to that 2600 point. I haven't looked at the list recently, to be honest with you, but I know that this is an important "psychological" barrier for some female players - and chess fans too. In actuality though, most of the attention is focused on the "super GMs" who now have to have a rating of 2700 or above. Of all women alive today, only GM Judit Polgar was once rated above 2700 - and that was before she got married and had two children.
So, it is going to be a hard row for the female chessplayers to hoe in order to reach the heights of the top male ELOs. The top female players today, other than Polgar and Koneru, are all in the 2500s.
Don't worry, both comments are mine and it was my fault. I got an error message and posted again. Thx for your kind answer.
ReplyDeleteApart from Polgar and Koneru, who have already done it, imho only Hou Yi Fan can break the 2600 barrier, and perhaps the Kosintseva sisters, but these two will have to wait. Other players are too worried about self-boasting and promotion (Kosteniuk, Pogonina) and money (Stefanova). Sad...