2013 Grand Pacific Open

Hola darlings!

This is Goddesschess' third year providing sponsorship to the Grand Pacific Open.  It's coming up soon!  Begins March 29th - April 1st, 2013 at the beautiful Grand Pacific Hotel in Victoria, BC.

As of today, 78 players are pre-registered in the "Premier" and U-1800 Sections.  As noted in prior posts about the 2013 GPO, WGM Katerina Rohanyan is the highest-rated registered female player and right now, the second-highest rated registered player.  WFM Chouchanik Airapetian (USA 2088) is the second-highest rated pre-registered chess femme and #14 on the pre-registered list.  Would love to see two femmes in the top 10...  Just saying, darlings!  Chouchanik has played in U.S. Chess Chamionships (2005, 2008) - not exactly a stranger to high-stakes play. 

2088

Goddesschess' sponsorship includes prizes for the five best female player finishers:  $80, $70, $60, $50, $40, awarded in addition to any other prizes the players may win.

We're hoping for many more players and the highest-attendance yet GPO, and may the best chess femme win first place!  Woo woo!

2007 U.S. Women's Chess Championship - Airapetian

WFM Chouchanik Airapetian 2162 (FIDE)

C.A. participated in the 2007 U.S. Championship (it is not so designated and is open to qualifying players of both sexes, but I call it the "Men’s" event because that’s what it is, de facto) but did not do very well, scoring only 1.5/9.

She’s an underdog in the Women’s Championship, being one of the lower-rated players, but she’s a fighter, and I expect we’ll see some exciting games from C.A.

I got the following biographical information from the USCF website:

Chouchanik (b. April 20, 1975) originates from Leninakan, Armenia and learned the royal game from her mother at the age of seven. A talented youngster, she earned a place at the Armenian national team and eventually represented Armenia during the Women's Interzonal tournament, a qualification tournament for the Women's World Championship, in Georgia,1993.

Arapetian came to the U.S. in August, 1994. Chouchanik lives in Burbank, California with her husband, a former member of the Armenian national volleyball team. Among her hobbies are swimming, tennis, and shopping.

A longer biography on C.A. can be found at this Chessbase article (written by Duif) from October 2, 2005, along with several photographs of C.A. and her husband, Ararat Agaian.

In the 2005 Championships C.A. finished with 3.5 points (54th out of 64 players), winning $2,400 for her performance.

You can find some of C.A.’s games here.