2009 Isbank Ataturk Women Masters Tournament

Some after-tournament info. Well, I guess I shouldn't be calling this the Ataturk Women Masters anymore, it's now the FIDE Women's Grand Prix, woo woo. Search for this tournament five years from now - will the FIDE Women's Grand Prix still be around (cough cough)... For convention's sake, I will go back in my prior posts and put in an "also known as." If I remember to do that tomorrow, I'm too tired to do it tonight. LOL! The official website features a short interview with the winner, Koneru Humpy. She was a bit disappointed with her play, evidently, and I commend her for being honest about it. Yes, Hou Yifan is a hot player and is expected to be the next big thing - a sort of Magnus Carlsen except in a female shell - but she still is not as seasoned as Koneru and she has not played in nearly as many open and invitational events as Koneru against much stronger male opponents. To be blunt about it, you don't move up in the ELO ranks playing 2450 rated females, no matter how great their chess is and until more women break that 2600 barrier, female chessplayers will continue to be ignored by 95% of the population that pays attention to chess. It seems that Hou has some difficulty quickly rebounding from losses (or draws in games she feels she should have won); that may be a function of her age as much as lack of seasoning. I don't know if it's the Chinese government or her parents, or both, but methinks it's time to loosen the reins a little Oh well, just my thoughts on the matter. Wonderful news is that veteran player IM Elina Danielian has scored her second GM norm by her second-place finish in this event! HOORAY for ElIna, I'm pleased as punch for her. The official website also reports that Danielian will gain some 23 ratings points as a result of her performance in the Ataturk and go over 2500 (again). Check out the performance ratings of the chess femmes: No. Name FED IRtg Rp 1 GM CRAMLING, Pia SWE 2548 2475 2 WIM YILDIZ, Betul Cemre TUR 2214 2243 3 IM FIERRO Baquero, Martha L. ECU 2403 2488 4 GM HOU, Yifan CHN 2571 2648 5 GM ZHAO, Xue CHN 2508 2612 6 GM SEBAG, Marie FRA 2529 2513 7 IM DANIELIAN, Elina ARM 2496 2655 8 WGM SHEN, Yang CHN 2448 2273 9 GM CHIBURDANIDZE, Maia GEO 2516 2442 10 WGM MAMEDJAROVA, Zeinab AZE 2362 2281 11 GM STEFANOVA, Antoaneta BUL 2557 2438 12 GM KONERU, Humpy IND 2621 2679 Again, great photos at Chessdom.com of the top three ladies: Humpy, Elina and Yifan. This was a fab event and I'm already looking forward to next year's Ataturk.

Koneru Wins!

WOW! Way to go, Humpy, yeah! From the official website: In the last round of İstanbul Women Grand Prix, Humpy Koneru won against Marie Sebag while Hou Yifan faltered against Shen Yang. Elina Danielian scored an important victory and outplayed Xue Zhao to take the second spot. Martha Fierro won against Maia Chiburdanidze while Pia Cramling closed the tournament with a win against Antoaneta Stefanova. Zeinab Mamedyarova and Betül Cemre Yıldız drew. The leader changed for the third time and Humpy Koneru won İş Bank Atatürk FIDE Women Grand Prix with 8.5 out of 11. Elina Danielian took the second place with better tie-break having 8 points while Hou Yifan took the third place. Here are the final standings: Rank SNo. Name Rtg FED Pts Res. SB. Koya 1 12 GM KONERU Humpy 2621 IND 8½ 0 43,50 4½ 2 7 IM DANIELIAN Elina 2496 ARM 8 ½ 40,25 4 3 4 GM HOU Yifan 2571 CHN 8 ½ 39,75 4 4 5 GM ZHAO Xue 2508 CHN 7½ 0 35,25 3½ 5 6 GM SEBAG Marie 2529 FRA 6 0 28,00 3 6 3 IM FIERRO Baquero Martha L. 2403 ECU 5½ 1 20,00 1 7 1 GM CRAMLING Pia 2548 SWE 5½ 0 22,75 1 8 11 GM STEFANOVA Antoaneta 2557 BUL 5 ½ 20,75 2 9 9 GM CHIBURDANIDZE Maia 2516 GEO 5 ½ 20,25 1½ 10 10 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Zeinab 2362 AZE 2½ 1 10,25 1 11 8 WGM SHEN Yang 2448 CHN 2½ 0 17,75 2 12 2 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2214 TUR 2 0 8,00 ½ See also the spare but insightful comments by GM Susan Polgar at her blog. Some interesting stories here - among them the failure of Stefanova, Cramling and Chiburdanidze. What happened? Stefanova can usually be counted upon to be among the front runners, but she lagged behind in this event from the start and never got any better. I can say pretty much the same for Pia Cramling, who earned her GM stripes around the same time that GM Susan Polgar earned hers! And what happened to Marie Sebag, who won her GM title playing in the 2008 European Individual Chess Championship ("Open")? She was lackluster in this event. Who lit that fire under Elina Danielian? GOOD to see her charging ahead in this tournament, wow. I've been covering women's chess for eight years and have seen her in tournament after tournament - sometimes the only woman playing. Always steady, usually out of the lime-light. Not this time! I'd be tempted to say this tournament represents the passing of the "old guard" (relatively speaking), but Danielian gives the lie to that theory! She has been playing very good chess but has been mostly under the radar. I consider Marie Sebag one of the "new guard" but she just didn't have it at this event. Who will be the top female player once Judit Polgar retires? The battle seems to be between Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan - maybe. Who knows what new female chess star will jump to the fore in the next couple of years?

2009 Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters Tournament

This article is about yesterday's game: From the Press Trust of India Humpy held by Zhao, title hopes diminish By Our Chess Correspondent Istanbul, Mar 18 (PTI) Top seeded Grandmaster Koneru tried her best but could not breach Zhao Xue's defence and drew a tense game to remain joint third after the ninth round of the IS Bank Ataturk Women Grand Prix chess event here. Humpy raised visions of a victory against leader Zhao that would have brightened his title prospects but the Chinese kept herself in the game with some fine defence and in the end it was a drawn endgame that surfaced on the board. Consequentially, Zhao remained in sole lead inching up to 7.5 points out of a possible nine in the 12-players round robin tournament which is a part of the next world championship cycle.Compatriot Yifan Hao (7) remained in the second spot after she failed to capitalise on the extra pawn against Marie Sebag of France and settled for a draw.Humpy shares the third spot along with Elina Danielian of Armenia with 6.5 points apiece. In other games of the day Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria won against Zeinab Mamedyarova of Azerbaijan as did Elina Danielian against Martha Baquero Fierro of Ecuador. Local hopeful Betul Cemre Yildiz scored her first win against Shen Yang of China, while Pia Cramling of Sweden won her second game in a row against Maia Chiburdanidze in the clash of the two most experienced names in the field. PTI

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That was yesterday - today Koneru is in a three-way tie for first place with 7.5! She won her game today against Stefanova, Zhao lost her game to recently minted GM Marie Sebag, and Hou Yifan drew her game with IM Elina Danielian. Very interesting! Here are the current standings: 1 GM ZHAO Xue 2508 CHN 7½ 1½ 30,75 2½ 2 GM HOU Yifan 2571 CHN 7½ 1 34,00 3½ 3 GM KONERU Humpy 2621 IND 7½ ½ 33,50 3½ 4 IM DANIELIAN Elina 2496 ARM 7 0 30,00 3½ 5 GM SEBAG Marie 2529 FRA 6 0 25,00 2 6 GM STEFANOVA Antoaneta 2557 BUL 5 ½ 19,00 2 7 GM CHIBURDANIDZE Maia 2516 GEO 5 ½ 18,50 2 8 IM FIERRO Baquero Martha L. 2403 ECU 4½ 1 12,50 ½ 9 GM CRAMLING Pia 2548 SWE 4½ 0 16,00 2 10 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Zeinab 2362 AZE 2 1 7,75 ½ 11 WGM SHEN Yang 2448 CHN 2 0 12,75 2 12 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2214 TUR 1½ 0 5,75 ½ Here is some belated coverage of this great event at Chessbase. Tomorrow is the final game - the heat is on, Bad Girls! Official website.

2009 Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters Tournament

Standings after Round 7: 1 GM HOU Yifan 2571 CHN 6½ 2 GM ZHAO Xue 2508 CHN 6 3 GM KONERU Humpy 2621 IND 5 4 IM DANIELIAN Elina 2496 ARM 4½ 5 GM STEFANOVA Antoaneta 2557 BUL 3½ 6 GM CHIBURDANIDZE Maia 2516 GEO 3½ 7 IM FIERRO Baquero Martha L. 2403 ECU 3½ GM SEBAG Marie 2529 FRA 3½ 9 WGM SHEN Yang 2448 CHN 2 10 GM CRAMLING Pia 2548 SWE 2 11 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Zeinab 2362 AZE 1½ 12 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2214 TUR ½ Hou (W) defeated Koneru (B) today to take sole possession of the lead, with 4 rounds to go. It appears Hou is going for a repeat of her Isbanc title.

2009 Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters Tournament

Standings after Round 6: 1 GM HOU Yifan 2571 CHN 5½ 2 GM KONERU Humpy 2621 IND 5 3 GM ZHAO Xue 2508 CHN 5 4 IM DANIELIAN Elina 2496 ARM 4 5 IM FIERRO Baquero Martha L. 2403 ECU 3½ 6 GM STEFANOVA Antoaneta 2557 BUL 3 7 GM CHIBURDANIDZE Maia 2516 GEO 2½ 8 GM SEBAG Marie 2529 FRA 2½ 9 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Zeinab 2362 AZE 1½ 10 WGM SHEN Yang 2448 CHN 1½ 11 GM CRAMLING Pia 2548 SWE 1½ 12 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2214 TUR ½ I'm in shock - seeing Cramling, Stefanova and Chiburdanidze down in the standings, wow! Are we witnessing here a passing of the guard among women chessplayers, so to speak, just as we are seeing a passing of the guard to the young guns (Carlsen, So, Caruana, etc.) among the men? Stay tuned. where is Victoria Cymilyte these days???

2009 Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters Tournament

High drama! Can you tell the Indian press is upset with Humpy's current standing at the Ataturk? Koneru Humpy draws second chess tournament March 11, 2009 Top seed women grandmaster Koneru Humpy of India again settled for her second draw against Shen Yang of China and on the trot to slip to the joint third place in the IS Bank Ataturk Women Grand Prix chess tournament. Now Humpy and Zhao Xue of China share the third place with three points apiece. Humpy will now have to work harder in the remaining seven rounds of this 12-players round robin tournament which is a part of the next world championship cycle.

2009 Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters Tournament

Standings after Round 4 (tomorrow is a rest day): Rank SNo. Name Rtg FED Pts Res. SB. Koya 1 4 GM HOU Yifan 2571 CHN 3½ 0 3,75 1 2 3 IM FIERRO Baquero Martha L. 2403 ECU 3½ 0 2,50 ½ 3 12 GM KONERU Humpy 2621 IND 3 0 4,50 1 4 5 GM ZHAO Xue 2508 CHN 3 0 3,25 ½ 5 7 IM DANIELIAN Elina 2496 ARM 2½ 0 4,25 1 6 11 GM STEFANOVA Antoaneta 2557 BUL 2 0 3,75 1 7 6 GM SEBAG Marie 2529 FRA 2 0 1,50 0 8 9 GM CHIBURDANIDZE Maia 2516 GEO 1½ 0 4,25 1½ 9 8 WGM SHEN Yang 2448 CHN 1½ 0 3,75 1½ 10 1 GM CRAMLING Pia 2548 SWE 1 0 0,50 0 11 2 WIM YILDIZ Betul Cemre 2214 TUR ½ 0 1,50 ½ 12 10 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Zeinab 2362 AZE 0 0 0,00 0 The starting ranks of Koneru and Cramling are not correct.

Women's Grand Prix: Ataturk Tournament

Sigh. The New York Times is behind the times on the chess news. By now, everyone who cares under the sun knows that the first leg of the new FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the Ataturk Women Masters, which was such a spectacular success last year in showcasing some of the top women chessplayers in the world, is going up against the 2009 European Individual Women's Chess Championship. What's new? FIDE screwed up big time - but the Mighty Kirsan does not care. Hell, he screwed over the male players in the 2008-2009 Grand Prix cycle, he certainly has no qualms screwing over the best female players in the world. After all, so the reasoning goes, nobody pays attention to them.

2009 Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters Tournament

Great publicity for the second edition of the Isbanc Ataturk Women's Masters - first (and hopefully not the last) in the Women's Grand Prix series put together by FIDE: From WorldBulletin.net Top female chess players to converge in Turkey The top-rated female chess players will converge to Istanbul to participate in the 2nd Turkey Is Bankasi Ataturk FIDE Female Masters' Chess Tournament. Tuesday, 03 March 2009 15:20 The tournament will take place at the Is Bankasi's Kibele Gallery in Istanbul from March 6 to 19. World Chess Federation (FIDE) President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov will attend the tournament which is regarded as the first event of the FIDE Woman Grand Prix series 2009/2010. In a statement posted in its web-site, FIDE said, "the Turkish Chess Federation is one of the most active national federations and has already organized in 2009 the Mediterranean Championships and the Turkish Youth Championships with 996 players. Turkey has also hosted some other prestigious FIDE tournaments this year including the World Men's Team Championship, the World Youth Championships and the world U-16 Olympiad. TCF is granted to host the 2012 World Chess Olympiad Istanbul, during the 79th FIDE Congress in Dresden on 24th November 2008." The FIDE Women Grand Prix is a new series of elite tournaments which will be organized by FIDE and Global Chess. There will be 6 legs over two years in various countries around the world with three tournaments every year. The next tournament is planned in Nanjing, China at the end of September. The winner of each tournament will win 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 euros and the overall winner of the series will win a further 15,000 euros at the end of the series. Participants of the Istanbul Tournament are Humpy Koneru (India), Hou Yifan (China), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), Pia Cramling (Sweden), Marie Sebag (France), Xue Zhao (China), Maia Chiburdanidze (Georgia), Zhu Chen (Qatar), Elina Danielian (Armenia), Shen Yang (China), Zeinab Mamedyarova (Azerbaijan) and Betul Cemre Yildiz (Turkey) AA

2009 European Individual Women's Chess Championship

LatestChess.com reports on the upcoming 2009 European Individual Women's Chess Championship. It is an 11-round Swiss beginning March 7 and completing March 21, 2009. The playing time will be 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move, starting from move one. The Individual European Women's Championship 2009 is a qualification event for the next World Championship for Women. According to FIDE regulations and the decision of the ECU Board, 14 players will qualify. The top 20 players of the EIWCC will divide a prize fund of 70 000 euro. 2008's top finishers/money winners: 1 GM Lahno Kateryna 2479 UKR 8.5 (6,000 E) 2 IM Ushenina Anna 2474 UKR 8.0 (5,000 E) 3 WGM Zhukova Natalia 2450 UKR 8.0 (4,000 E) 4 IM Cmilyte Viktorija 2466 LTU 8.0 (3,000 E) 5 IM Mkrtchian Lilit 2413 ARM 8.0 (2,000 E) 6 IM Skripchenko Almira 2443 FRA 8.0 (1,900 E) 7 IM Dembo Yelena 2429 GRE 8.0 (1,800 E) 8 GM Cramling Pia 2539 SWE 7.5 (1,700 E) 9 WGM Pogonina Natalija 2470 RUS 7.5 (1,600 E) 10 IM Muzychuk Anna 2486 SLO 7.5 (1,500 E) 11 GM Stefanova Antoaneta 2538 BUL 7.5 (1,400 E) 12 IM Dzagnidze Nana 2443 GEO 7.5 (1,300 E) 13 IM Danielian Elina 2479 ARM 7.5 (1,200 E) 14 IM Lomineishvili Maia 2400 GEO 7.5 (1,100 E) 15 WGM Demina Julia 2337 RUS 7.5 (1,000 E) As noted in previous posts, the first leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the Is Banc Ataturk Masters - which will take place at the same time as the Individual European Women's Chess Championship. Oops. Some of the Grand Prix Ataturk players would not be able to participate in the IEWCC because of their country of residence. Some players would qualify, but they've evidently opted to play in the Ataturk - perhaps a chance for more money? GM Humpy Koneru 2621 GM Yifan Hou 2571 GM Antoaneta Stefanova 2557 (11th place, 1400 E) GM Pia Cramling 2548 (8th place, 1700 E) GM Marie Sebag 2529 (Sebag played in the Men's Individual European CC last year and won her 3rd and final GM norm) GM Maia Chiburdanidze 2516 GM Zhao Xue 2508 GM Zhu Chen 2496 IM Elina Danielian 2496 (13th place, 1200 E) WGM Shen Yang 2448 WGM Zeinab Mamedjarova 2362 WIM Betül Cemre Yıldız 2214

Women's Grand Prix: Ataturk Tournament

It's confirmed! There was a press release from FIDE yesterday that the Ataturk Tournament is the first stop on the Women's Grand Prix that will take place over 2009 and 2010. Will it hold up - who knows? The Men's Grand Prix did not! What chance does the Women's Grand Prix have under current economic conditions? I'm just glad to see the Women's Ataturk Tournament back again - it was a fantastic event last year, won by Hou Yifan with 7 of 9. Turkey is serious about encouraging its people to take up chess and emerging as a chess power in the world, and it has many very promising players rising in the ranks on the international competitive circuit. To see a chess federation putting forward such effort, commitment and putting substantial funds on the line from supporters, members, sponsors and the government to promote chess - it warms my heart. If only USCF would get the hint (hint hint). You can find the full press release here. Here are the participants in the 2009 Ataturk Women Masters Tournament: GM Humpy Koneru 2621 GM Yifan Hou 2571 GM Antoaneta Stefanova 2557 GM Pia Cramling 2548 GM Marie Sebag 2529 GM Maia Chiburdanidze 2516 GM Zhao Xue 2508 GM Zhu Chen 2496 IM Elina Danielian 2496 WGM Shen Yang 2448 WGM Zeinab Mamedjarova 2362 WIM Betül Cemre Yıldız 2214 Average ELO: 2488 The action begins March 6, 2009. The sponsor of the event is Türkiye İş Bankası. The event will be held in Is Sanat Gallery (Is Bankası Art Gallery) on the entrance floor of İş Bank Towers in Istanbul. Opening Ceremony will be held on the 41st floor of Is Bank Towers which is the highest place of Istanbul and Southern Europe. İş Bankası is the corporate sponsor of the Turkish Chess Federation and supports the Turkish Chess in School Curriculum for the last four years.