Chess Femme News!

Tatev Abrahamyhan is mentioned in Dylan Loeb McClain's chess blog at The New York Times: 

January 9, 2011, 9:32 pm
America Has a New Chess Grandmaster and Three New International Masters

United States chess has rarely, if ever, had a week like the one that ended Saturday. On Saturday, four Americans earned titles at the Berkeley International tournament.

The 66th Armenian Women's Chess Championship is scheduled to begin on January 11, and will run through January 20, featuring ten of Armenian's female chessplayers.  They are not the best Armenian female players, which is a shame, but one of them will carry the honor of a national title:

No. Name FED Rtg
5 WIM Andriasian Siranush ARM 2217
6 WIM Gasparyan Narine ARM 2125
1 WGM Movsisian Naira ARM 2100
10 WFM Martirosyan Lia ARM 2082
8 Gevorgyan Maria ARM 2064
4 Babayan Armine ARM 2053
2 WFM Kharatyan Anahit ARM 2047
7 Kalashyan Varduhi ARM 2017
9 Sargsyan Shushanna ARM 2000
3 Meseljyan Astghik ARM 1892

The 68th Georgian Women's Chess Championship has just started and, unlike the Armenian Women's Championship, does feature some of the country's strongest female chessplayers, including our friend, IM Salome Melia (go, Salome!)  There are 13 players, so this is a 12-round event which began - on January 11th (tomorrow, according to my time zone, LOL!)  Here are the standings after R1:

Rk.			Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1		WIM	Danelia Mariam	GEO	2248	1.0	0.00	1	0.0
		IM	Purtseladze Maka	GEO	2323	1.0	0.00	1	0.0
		IM	Melia Salome	GEO	2449	1.0	0.00	1	0.0
		WIM	Mikadze Miranda	GEO	2362	1.0	0.00	1	0.0
		IM	Khurtsidze Nino	GEO	2436	1.0	0.00	1	0.0
6		IM	Javakhishvili Lela	GEO	2438	0.5	0.25	0	0.5
		IM	Khotenashvili Bela	GEO	2440	0.5	0.25	0	0.5
8		IM	Lomineishvili Maia	GEO	2345	0.0	0.00	0	0.0
		IM	Khukhashvili Sopiko	GEO	2437	0.0	0.00	0	0.0
		WGM	Paikidze Nazi	GEO	2455	0.0	0.00	0	0.0
		WGM	Batsiashvili Nino	GEO	2396	0.0	0.00	0	0.0
		WIM	Nikoladze Sopio	GEO	2254	0.0	0.00	0	0.0
		WIM	Arabidze Meri	GEO	2315	0.0	0.00	0	0.0