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Sunday, April 14, 2019

2019 Hales Corners Chess Challenge (Challenge XXIX)

Hola darlings!

The 2019 spring Hales Corners Chess Challenge has finished and prizes awarded.  This year's event was brought back to Milwaukee (YAY!) at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, South 13th Street and College Avenue. 

This year's Challenge hosted 31 players in the Open and 34 players in the Reserve.  As you know, Goddesschess has been helping support female chess players since Challenge VIII.  Our prize structure has changed quite a bit since then but our goal remains the same - to encourage more chess femmes to play in tournaments and match themselves against stronger players. That's the way to grow your skills.

This year's Challenge XXIX conflicted with the All Girls National Open in Chicago hosted over the weekend, and it seems that drew a lot of chess femmes who might have otherwise considered playing in the Challenge to Chicago to compete in the All Girls National Open. But we still had a good percentage of chess femmes attending, 9.2%. 

You know the drill by now (I hope!):  Goddesschess prizes are in addition to any prize a female player may earn, and the top finishing female player in each Section receives Goddesschess paid registration if she chooses to play in the next Hales Corners Chess Challenge. 

The report:

Open Players; Goddesschess Prizes Awarded (if any):
Susanna Ulrich (2079) $125 (plus paid registration for next event)
Madeline Weber (1718) $100

Reserve Players; Goddesschess Prizes Awarded (if any):
Lizzie Brahin (1289) $50 (plus paid registration for next event)
Ellen Wanek (1234) $40
Sandra Hoffman 81371) $20
Katerina Tarra (375) (no prize won but scored lots of experience points!)

My chess buddy Ellen Wanek sent me a couple of photos of the chess femmes!



Ladies, you brought a smile to my face!

Okay, I probably should have used this one instead but I couldn't resist using the first one (I always make faces in photographs, too):



I LUV you all!  Thanks for coming out and supporting your fellow female chess femmes at this great event.  I plan on seeing you ALL in person at the Autumn Hales Corners Chess Challenge on October 5th, same time, same place (but I won't be playing - it makes my eyes cross and gives me a headache that would kill a man to play chess these days, UGH!) 

2019 U.S. Women's Chess Championship - Final Standings

Congratulations to Jennifer Yu, who came out of the gate on fire and stayed on fire throughout the entire 2019 tournament, finishing with 10 out of 11 possible points.  She had 2 draws and 9 wins!  WHOOP WHOOP!  Yu took sole first place in the Women's Championship for $25,000.  Veterans to the U.S. Women's Championship Tatev Abrahamyan and Anna Zatonskih tied for 2nd place with 7.5/11 and each took home $15,500.

Final standings (11 rounds):



Here is the final cross-table: