Chess Femme News!

GM Judit Polgar (HUN 2699) is the lone female playing amid the teams participating in the Yinzhou Cup 2011 World ChessTeam Championship (July 17 - 26, 2011).  She's on the Hungarian team:

6. Hungary (RtgAvg:2696 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Games
1	GM	Leko Peter	2717	HUN	0.0
2	GM	Almasi Zoltan	2726	HUN	0.0
3	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	HUN	0.0
4	GM	Balogh Csaba	2643	HUN	0.0
5	GM	Erdos Victor	2613	HUN	0.0

The US has fielded a team:

1. USA (RtgAvg:2667 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 0)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Games
1	GM	Kamsky Gata	2741	USA	0.0
2	GM	Onischuk Alexander	2675	USA	0.0
3	GM	Shulman Yuri	2617	USA	0.0
4	GM	Seirawan Yasser	2635	USA	0.0
5	GM	Hess Robert	2609	USA	0.0

The competitive fires evidently are still burning in GM Yasser Seirawan.  Good to see him back but after his not too good performance at the 2011 U.S. Chess Championship, I'm surprised, frankly!  How is he going to compete against the Chinese players who almost always seem to be under-rated relative to their actual level of skill/talent - or all those over 2700 Eastern Europeans and the Russians? 

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Meanwhile, here's a tournament that's called a "European Team Championship" - but notice the lack of teams from England, France, Spain, Germany, Italy, etc etc. etc.:

European Youth Team Championship - Girls U18
July 15 - 21, 2011
Iasi, Romania
Website (English translated)

Standings after R3:

Rk.		Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	TB1	TB2	TB3
1		HUNGARY 1	*					1½	2		4	3.5	2.50
2		ROMANIA 1		*			1½			1½	4	3.0	2.50
3		SLOVENIA			*	1				1½	3	2.5	2.00
4		BULGARIA			1	*			1		2	2.0	1.75
5		ROMANIA 2		½			*	1			1	1.5	0.75
		POLAND	½				1	*			1	1.5	0.75
7		HUNGARY 2	0			1			*		1	1.0	1.00
8		ROMANIA 3		½	½					*	0	1.0	0.00

The team composition is small (mininum of 2 players) and except for one of the Foisor sisters playing on Romania 1, I'm not familiar with any of these players:

1. ROMANIA 1 (RtgAvg:2255 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 3)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1	WIM	Bulmaga Irina	2293	ROU	1.0	2.0
2	WFM	Foisor Mihaela-Veronica	2217	ROU	2.0	2.0
2. ROMANIA 2 (RtgAvg:1899 / TB1: 1 / TB2: 1.5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1	WFM	Visanescu Daria-Ioana	1976	ROU	1.5	2.0
2		Vasilescu Maria	1822	ROU	0.0	2.0
3. HUNGARY 1 (RtgAvg:2207 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 3.5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1	WIM	Papp Petra	2261	HUN	2.0	2.0
2		Varga Melinda	2152	HUN	1.5	2.0
4. BULGARIA (RtgAvg:1923 / TB1: 2 / TB2: 2)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1		Krumova Ani	1961	BUL	0.5	2.0
2		Dragieva Denitza	1885	BUL	1.5	2.0
5. SLOVENIA (RtgAvg:1921 / TB1: 3 / TB2: 2.5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1		Kolaric Spela	2045	SLO	1.5	2.0
2		Vidic Teja	1797	SLO	1.0	2.0
6. HUNGARY 2 (RtgAvg:2154 / TB1: 1 / TB2: 1)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1	WIM	Varga Klara	2161	HUN	1.0	2.0
2	WFM	Kabai Zsuzsanna	2146	HUN	0.0	2.0
7. POLAND (RtgAvg:2105 / TB1: 1 / TB2: 1.5)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1	WFM	Adamowicz Katarzyna	2106	POL	0.0	2.0
2		Gluszko Monika	2103	POL	1.5	2.0
8. ROMANIA 3 (RtgAvg:1955 / TB1: 0 / TB2: 1)
Bo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Pts.	Games
1		Gelip Ioana	1989	ROU	0.5	2.0
2		Morea Georgiana-Steluta	1921	ROU	0.0	1.0
3		Anton Roxana-Ana	1836	ROU	0.5	1.0

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The Andorra Open begins July 16 (through the 24) and always attracts a large field.  The highest rated female player this year is IM Tania Sachdev (IND 2419) who comes in as the 24th ranked player.  Most of the chess femmes fall into the lower ranked players, among them Maya Porat (ISR 2274), ranked 37th on the player list, Adina-Maria Hamdouchi (FRA 2266), ranked 39th (153 registered players).

I'll be watching Sachdev's performance, hoping for a break-out.  She seems to have hit a plateau.