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Sunday, July 31, 2011

Chess Femme News!

Lots of news out of Lubbock, Texas this past week, thanks to the 2011 Susan Polgar Invitational.  It is great to see press and t.v. coverage of some of the players' stories and the wonderful things that happen to make it possible for many of them to attend this fantastic event. And so --

Saturday, July 30, 2011
Savanna Naccarato places 9th out of 46 at the 2011 Susan Polgar Girls Invitational

Saturday, July 30, 2011
If we can impact one girl, it’s worth it

Saturday, July 30, 2011
Vanita is on her way

Friday, July 29, 2011
A must see video: The impact of chess for one girl

Saturday, July 30, 2011
FOX news: Changing lives, one girl at a time

World Teams Chess Championship (Ningbo, China)
July 16  27, 2011

8th World Teams Ningbo CHN Sun 17th Jul 2011 - Wed 27th Jul 2011
Final Round 9 Standings:
RkTeam12345678910TB1TB2TB3
1Armenia*22221422.50
2China*231322.50
3Ukraine2*21219.50
4Russia22*331431021.00
5Hungary1*2231019.50
6USA2½12*31018.50
7Azerbaijan223*32919.00
8India1211*715.50
9Israel½0½2*3513.00
10Egypt½½11½1*09.00

The USA had a respectable showing.  The lone female, GM Judit Polgar, played on the Hungarian team.  She had a very good performance overall, finishing in 16th place overall out of 50 players (total for all teams), and take a look at how she compared with the players right around her in the final rankings (rather august company, I'd say!):

14GMIvanchuk Vassily2768Ukraine5.0955.61
15GMGashimov Vugar2760Azerbaijan5.0955.62
16GMPolgar Judit2699Hungary5.0955.63
17GMMamedyarov Shakhriyar2765Azerbaijan5.0955.63

I am greatly looking forward to the opportunity to once again see Judit Polgar play chess in person in St. Louis in September. The first and only time I've seen her play in person thus far was in Las Vegas in August, 1999 in the FIDE World Chess Championship (Knock-Out). As I've written about elsewhere in the blog, Judit is one of five female chessplayers who will be facing off against five male chessplayers in the Kings v. Queens Chess Tournament to be held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis beginning September 9, 2011 (play begins September 10th). As far as possible, the respective teams have been matched ELO wise. To further mix things up, Fischer random chess will be played for one all-play-all, and rapid-chess will be played for the second all-play-all! Exciting stuff - no six hours games (ouch, my sore butt - I still remember those from Las Vegas in '99).

Dutch Open 2011
July 19 - 28, 2011
IM Irina Turova and WGM Alina L'Ami mixed it up with the men in a field of 63 players in this year's Dutch Open. WGM L'Ami will be playing in the 2011 City of Montreal Open Chess Championships (sponsored by Goddesschess) September 9 - 11, 2011!

The event was won (on tie-breaks) by GM Maxim Turov with 7.0/9.  The ladies placed relatively well:

18GM Timman, Jan5.0M25752428-1.6048.025.251½1½0½½10
19IM Vishnu Prasanna5.0M23402434+1.1447.523.25101½10½10
20FM Ikeda, Junta5.0M23492371+0.2746.523.0110010101
21IM Turova, Irina5.0F24132405-0.0246.021.751011½0½10
22IM Hendriks, Willy5.0M24152365-0.3443.022.0½101101½0
23IM Brown, Andrew5.0M22022277+0.6642.520.5½0½110110
24WGM L'Ami, Alina5.0F23122348+0.5341.522.00111½0½01
25FM Sowray, Peter5.0M23502300-0.5341.020.0101½001½1
26GM Deepan Chakkravarthy5.0M24702323-1.5741.019.25110½01½01

L'Ami's husband, GM Erwin L'Ami, finished in 4th place with 6.5/9.

Politiken Cup 2011
(Copenhagen Chess Festival)
July 30 - August 7, 2011
For the past several years the organizers have made a push to attract female players and have been, in general, successful.  This event is a favorite of GM Viktorija Cmilyte, for instance.  I've tried to pick out the names of the chess femmes from the current standings - no guarantee I've got them all and I may have a male or two in the list by mistake because I thought the name sounded like a femme, in both cases my apologies!  This year there are 311 players.

Here are the top female players after 2 rounds:

12 72. Dara Akdag (BMS Skak) 2179 2201 2
23 54. Kristen Schmidt (Skakklubben K41) 2279 2289 2
43 43. FM Kassa Korley (Marshall, n.y. usa) 0 2326 2
51 21. GM Viktorija Cmilyte (Skanderborg Skakklub) 0 2528 2
62 60. Sandi Stojanovski (Skakklubben K41) 2237 2254 1½
67 70. Kari Rauramaa (Matinkylän Shakkikerho) 0 2217 1½
78 23. WGM Anna Zatonskih () 0 2522 1½
86 134. Carina Jørgensen (Taastrup Skakforening) 1993 2030 1½
90 80. WFM Evgenia Pavlovskaia (Eslövs SK) 0 2175 1½

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