Chess Femme News!

Chessdom.com has an interview with IM Martha Fierro (on video).

2010 World Youth Chess Championships
Started today. List of the U18 girls. includes Narmin Kazimova of Azerbaijan whom I first saw play a few years ago in the European Women's Chess Championship and was impressed. I haven't seen much of her since then - she did not play on the Azerbaijani women's chess team at the Olympiad. I'll be interested to see what she does - she's coming in ranked #6. The US has one participant in this section: Datta Anjali, rated 2025 and ranked 37th out of the 71 players entered in the section. Peru's Cori Deysi is the #1 seed and probably the favorite to take home the gold medal.

The USA has a contingent of 40 players (boys and girls) at this championship. List.

Following Wisconsin's Awonder Liang, his R1 pairing in the Boys' U8 Section is against Vietnam's Nguyen Anh Khoi. Nguyen, rated 1980 (wow) has white.

The 15th European Club Cup for Women
You can find the teams and their rankings after 4 games at Chess-Results.com.  Many of the top ranked female players in the world are playing on these teams.

AVS is in first place at the moment:
Team-Composition with round-results
1. AVS (RtgAvg:2511, Captain: Georgiev, Vladimir / TB1: 7 / TB2: 10,5)
Bo. Name Rtg FED FideID 1 2 3 4 5 Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2551 BUL 2902257 1 ½ ½ 2,0 3 2456
2 GM Lahno Kateryna 2539 UKR 14109336 ½ ½ ½ ½ 2,0 4 2401
3 WGM Pogonina Natalija 2491 RUS 4147855 ½ 1 ½ ½ 2,5 4 2366
4 IM Muzychuk Mariya 2464 UKR 14114550 1 ½ 1 ½ 3,0 4 2325
5 WGM Savina Anastasia 2404 RUS 4196872 1 1,0 1 2104

As you can see - a very strong team!

The Georgians aren't laying down and playing dead, though:

Team-Composition with round-results
2. Samaia Tbilisi (RtgAvg:2464, Captain: Giorgadze, George / TB1: 7 / TB2: 9,5)
Bo. Name Rtg FED FideID 1 2 3 4 5 Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Chiburdanidze Maia 2500 GEO 13600036 ½ 1 ½ 2,0 3 2537
2 IM Javakhishvili Lela 2451 GEO 13601458 0 0 ½ 0,5 3 2471
3 IM Melia Salome 2439 GEO 13602446 1 1 ½ ½ 3,0 4 2456
4 IM Khurtsidze Nino 2435 GEO 13600320 ½ 1 1 ½ 3,0 4 2388
5 IM Khotenashvili Bela 2464 GEO 13602640 1 0 1,0 2 2208

What is perhaps most notable about the Georgian women is their consistency, game after game. I'm glad to see Goddesschess' friend IM Salome Melia playing.

The team in 4th place at the moment boasts the two highest-rated female players after GM Judit Polgar and one of the first women to earn a GM title the traditional way, GM Pia Cramling:

Team-Composition with round-results
4. Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo (RtgAvg:2554, Captain: Skripchenko, Almira / TB1: 5 / TB2: 11)
Bo. Name Rtg FED FideID 1 2 3 4 5 Pts. Games RtgAvg
1 GM Koneru Humpy 2593 IND 5008123 1 ½ 1 ½ 3,0 4 2441
2 GM Hou Yifan 2578 CHN 8602980 1 1 ½ 2,5 3 2424
3 IM Muzychuk Anna 2535 SLO 14111330 1 0 ½ 1,5 3 2265
4 GM Cramling Pia 2509 SWE 1700030 1 0 ½ 1,5 3 2370
5 IM Skripchenko Almira 2464 FRA 13900145 1 1 ½ 2,5 3 2194

What is shocking to me is that Koneru Humpy has dropped below 2600 and that Hou Yifan has not yet been able to breach 2600! They're both playing in too many women-only events and get trapped in the women's ratings ghetto. I know they're better players than their ratings reflect, and so is Pia Cramling. But strange things happen in the women's ratings ghetto, and both players have been spending an inordinate amount of time playing in women-only events.