2012 FIDE Women's Grand Prix - Jermuk

Despite the Chinese players all losing their final round games, Hou Yifan hung on to take the clear win with 7/11.  Here are the final round results - notice who knocked off the Chinese players:

Round 11 on 2012/07/28 at 15:00
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
6	IM	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	2417	1 - 0	GM	Zhao Xue	2556	12
7	GM	Kosintseva Nadezhda	2516	1 - 0	WGM	Ruan Lufei	2483	5
8	GM	Lahno Kateryna	2537	1 - 0	GM	Hou Yifan	2617	4
9	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2447	½ - ½	GM	Danielian Elina	2480	3
10	IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2450	1 - 0	IM	Khurtsidze Nino	2456	2
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2518	0 - 1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2598	1

Final standings (from The Week in Chess):

FIDE WGP Jermuk 2012 Jermuk ARM Mon 16th Jul 2012 - Sun 29th Jul 2012 Leading Final Round 11 Standings:
Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Hou Yifan	GM	CHN	2617	7.0	0.0	35.75	3.0
2	Kosintseva Nadezhda	GM	RUS	2516	6.5	1.5	36.50	4.5
3	Lahno Kateryna	GM	UKR	2537	6.5	1.5	36.00	3.5
4	Koneru Humpy	GM	IND	2598	6.5	0.0	33.00	3.0
5	Ju Wenjun	WGM	CHN	2518	6.0	1.0	31.25	2.5
6	Ruan Lufei	WGM	CHN	2483	6.0	0.0	29.25	2.0
7	Zhao Xue	GM	CHN	2556	5.5	0.0	29.00	2.5
8	Danielian Elina	GM	ARM	2480	5.0	0.5	27.50	3.0
9	Mkrtchian Lilit	IM	ARM	2450	5.0	0.5	25.25	2.0
10	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	IM	RUS	2417	4.5	0.0	24.50	3.0
11	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	IM	MGL	2447	4.0	0.0	24.00	3.0
12	Khurtsidze Nino	IM	GEO	2456	3.5	0.0	17.50	1.0
12 players

Personal favorites Lahno and Koneru ended up in 3rd and 4th, respectively -- a very good event for Lahno and maybe not so good for Koneru, but she fought back into the top 4 and I give her credit for that. 

There are photographs and interviews galore at the official website, round-by round results and games. 

You can see from the FIDE Women's Grand Prix standings (not including today's results) - and Hou's winning 4 outright - she's the cream of the crop and today's victory cements her position at the top:

FIDE Women Grand Prix standings
Player	Title	ROS	SHE	NAL	KAZ	JER	MAR	Best 3
Hou Yifan	GM	160	160		100			420
Anna Muzychuk	GM	100	130		145			375
Kateryna Lahno	GM	130		80	50			260
Zhao Xue	GM		75	160				235
Viktorija Cmilyte	GM		35	100	100			235
Ju Wenjun	WGM		100	130				230
Tatiana Kosintseva	GM	100		55	60			215
Koneru Humpy	GM	65			145			210
Nadezhda Kosintseva	GM	80		55	35			170
Elina Danielian	GM	45	50		75			170
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	IM	20	20	100				140
Antoaneta Stefanova	GM	45		55	35			135
Alisa Galliamova	IM	65	*	30	20			115
Ruan Lufei	WGM	30	75					105
Tan Zhongyi	WGM		100					100
Alexandra Kosteniuk	GM	10		10	75			95
Zhu Chen	GM		35	55				90
Munguntuul Batkhuyag	IM		60	20				80
Betul Cemre Yildiz	WGM		10		10			20
Control		850	850	850	850	0	0

2012 ACP Women's Cup

Tbilisi, Georgia.  The Georgian Chess Federation and the ACP are hosting the event, starting February 17 and ending February 22, 2012!  The "ACP" is the Association of Chess Professionals and, frankly, darlings, I thought it had gone defunct!  Shows how much I know, har :)  I think this is the official website - in English (but don't quote me on that).

There will be 10 rounds of play plus a tie-break, if necessary.  The rounds are spaced closely together, so this isn't traditional chess, or even chess using the new and improved FIDE time controlled that were put into place some years ago in order to "speed up" the game. 

Here is an alphabetical list of the invitees:

No.			Name	FED	Rtg
1		GM	Chiburdanidze Maia	GEO	2500
2		GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	LTU	2503
3		GM	Cramling Pia	SWE	2491
4		GM	Dzagnidze Nana	GEO	2535
5		GM	Kosintseva Nadezhda	RUS	2537
6		GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	RUS	2513
7		GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	RUS	2448
8		GM	Lahno Kateryna	UKR	2557
9		WGM	Mamedjarova Zeinab	AZE	2318
10		IM	Muzychuk Anna	SLO	2580
11		GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	BUL	2523
12		IM	Zatonskih Anna	USA	2506

Goddess! U.S. Women's Champion IM Anna Zatonskih has been extremely active in Europe lately. Good for her.  She is one of the professional female players who is balancing a family life while trying to pursue (and improve in the game) a career in chess.  Of the women invitees, I know that Pia Cramling, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Kateryna Lahno and Anna Zatonskih all have young children. It could be that some of the other players could also have children, but I just haven't read about it. 

It's a damn tough life, travelling for months at a time, being constantly away from your loved ones, particularly your small children.  There is something out of whack with an economic system that forces people to make such excruciating choices in order to try and make a living.  I don't care what the sex of the chessplayer (or worker) is; surely it is as hard on fathers to be constantly away from their families, too.  But, you know the drill - Macho Man and all that baloney.  Sigh. 

The ladies, on the other hand, are usually very frank and open in interviews about how much they miss their husbands and children.  In Anna Zatonskih's and GM Pia Cramling's cases, they are both married to chessplayers, which means that both parents are often on the road (sometimes together, but often apart), playing the Euro chess circuit and playing hit-or-miss in other invitationals around the world, as well as in the big Opens (but the chance to win big money in a popular Open that attracts other equally financially hungry players is much less).

It's brutal.  I cannot imagine what such a life would be like.  I cannot even manage to find some hours a week to do a one-hour chess lesson.  I have to try and squeeze it in on a weekend - impossible!  Or try to do it after a 12-hour day at the office.  Try to focus!  Neither is a good choice and, for the time being, I'm given up trying.  I just have too many other things to do, and while I love chess and I would like to improve my playing skills, on the rank of items from 1 to 10, that is down about number 20. 

Anyway, I wish all of these wonderfull talented players a lot of luck, and of course, being a USA gal myself, I'm rooting for Anna Zatonskih, with a close second for Florida resident GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, the 12th Women's World Chess Champion.

The matches start on February 18, 2012.  Here are the pairings for Round 1:

Bo.	No.			Name	Result		Name		No.
1	1		GM	Kosintseva Nadezhda		GM	Dzagnidze Nana		12
2	2		IM	Muzychuk Anna		IM	Zatonskih Anna		11
3	3		WGM	Mamedjarova Zeinab		GM	Chiburdanidze Maia		10
4	4		GM	Cmilyte Viktorija		GM	Stefanova Antoaneta		9
5	5		GM	Lahno Kateryna		GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra		8
6	6		GM	Kosintseva Tatiana		GM	Cramling Pia		7

2011 European Team Chess Championships - Women

Hola darlings!

Sorry I haven't been posting much the past few days.  We switched to "daylight savings time" last week (the week before?) -- I don't remember exactly when.  I'm having a hard time adjusting, just like I had a hard time in the spring this year when we "leaped ahead" an hour.  Yeah, I supposedly gained an hour of sleep one Saturday night, but honestly, I've been heading to bed at 9 p.m. or shortly after, because my body is telling me it is actually 10 p.m. or after!  I just cannot win!

This year's European Team Chess Championships are now herstory.  The top three women's teams were:

Rk.	SNo		Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1		Russia	RUS	9	8	1	0	17	25.5	177.0	165.50	137.5
2	5		Poland	POL	9	6	2	1	14	23.0	178.0	133.25	138.5
3	3		Georgia	GEO	9	7	0	2	14	22.5	181.0	134.00	139.0

I have my favorite players that I follow when I see them listed in events.  In this year's ETCC-Women, I had 10 players I was following, and I lost track of some of them, because they were alternating with other players on their teams and weren't playing every single game.  I won't go into all the details of their performances here, but I would like to point out some things.

First of all, I was following the 12th Women's World Chess Champion, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk.  She had some very tough tournaments earlier this year where she did not perform well.  But - the important thing - she never gave up.  She kept playing, she kept fighting.  Event after event, a very full schedule for this mother away from her husband and young daughter for so long!  Now, I don't follow gossip on line or participate in message boards or post messages at blogs the way I used to years ago, so I don't know for a fact that some people may have been saying that Alexadra was no longer a top-tier female player - but I'll bet such things were said and/or implied. 

Anyone who would say or snidely imply such things just doesn't know this woman or understand how women work, in general!  I don't claim a great acquaintance with Alexandra, but after exchanging correspondence over the years, I did meet her (finally) in person in September in St. Louis, while she was there to participate in the Kings v. Queens Tournament at the St. Louis Chess Club.  I know that Alexandra has a great heart and a great spirit, like all the women's chess champions do.  One simply cannot achieve that peak of success as a chessplayer without having such heart and spirit.  I will never, ever count Alexandra down and out!

And Alexandra proved that she still has what it takes to win!  In addition to winning a Gold Medal for her part in her Team's performance, Alexandra also won an individual Gold Medal for her performance on Board 4.  A well-deserved medal, I might add.  She was great!

You can check out her numbers performance (statistics measuring lots of different performances) at chess-results.com (tournament)  and also at chessqueen.com (story).  We've been invited to share the photos posted there - great photos -- you can check them out in more detail:

A happy Russian Women's Team - and rightfully so.  Anyone who thinks chess is a game of nerds hasn't seen these women, that's for sure! 

Alexandra wrote at chessqueen.com:

All the players in our team had a great result. I got 5.5 out of 7 (4 wins and 3 draws) and got the highest rating performance of my team, 2575 ELO. Our team’s average rating performance was 2523, even higher than our starting average rating of 2509, which was the highest team average at the start of the championship. Out of the 9 x 4 = 36 games played by our team, we only lost 3 individual games, but never lost a single match.

As for individual performances, everyone in our team did great! Apart from everyone in our Russian women’s team getting a team Gold medal, I got an individual Gold medal on the 4th board, as did Tatiana Kosintseva on board 2 and Natalija Pogonina on board 5. Valentina Gunina got an individual Bronze medal on board 3, and Nadezhda Kosintseva barely missed a medal with her 4th place on the 1st board, which is still a great performance. In all our 5-person team got 9 medals (8 Gold, 1 Bronze), almost the maximum!

Of 124 female players, Alexandra's performance ranked 4th overall (top 10 only shown, below):

The best players sorted according Rp,Pts,games,%,board (Final Ranking after 9 Rounds)

No.			Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	Pts.	Games	%	Bo.
1		IM	Muzychuk Anna	2557	Slovenia	2782	8.5	9	94.4	1
2		GM	Lahno Kateryna	2549	Ukraine	2632	5.0	7	71.4	1
3		GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2516	Georgia	2593	5.0	8	62.5	1
4		GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2439	Russia	2575	5.5	7	78.6	3
5		IM	Khurtsidze Nino	2440	Georgia	2573	6.5	8	81.3	3
6		GM	Kosintseva Tatiana	2526	Russia	2559	6.0	8	75.0	2
7		IM	Ushenina Anna	2463	Ukraine	2538	6.0	8	75.0	2
8		WGM	Zawadzka Jolanta	2326	Poland	2524	5.5	8	68.8	2
9		GM	Kosintseva Nadezhda	2546	Russia	2524	5.5	9	61.1	1
10		WIM	Ohme Melanie	2361	Germany	2521	6.5	8	81.3	2

Another Goddesschess friend, IM Salome Melia, (who married in early summer this year) playing on the Georgian Women's Team, also won two medals:  A Team Bronze Medal and an Individual Bronze Medal for her performance on Board 5:

Board 5
Rank Name Rtg Team Rp Rtg-O Pts G %
1 WGM Pogonina, Natalija 2451 RUS 2518 2278 4 5 80.0
2 IM Muzychuk, Mariya 2460 UKR 2468 2327 5,5 8 68.8
3 IM Melia, Salome 2392 GEO 2460 2302 5 7 71.4
Come on, Salome!  I have faith that you can earn a GM title. 

GM Kateryna Lahno did well for her team and for herself.  While the Ukrainian Women's Team finished out of contention for a Team Medal, Lahno won an individual Silver Medal for her excellent performance on Board 1:

Board 1
Rank Name Rtg Team Rp Rtg-O Pts G %
1 IM Muzychuk, Anna 2557 SLO 2782 2338 8,5 9 94.4
2 GM Lahno, Kateryna 2549 UKR 2632 2474 5 7 71.43 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 2516 GEO 2593 2498 5 8 62.5

Performance wise, here is how the women I was following placed (of 124 female players):

No.

Name

Rtg

Team

Rp

Pts.

Games

%

Bo.

2

GM

Lahno Kateryna

2549

Ukraine

2632

5.0

7

71.4

1

4

GM

Kosteniuk Alexandra

2439

Russia

2575

5.5

7

78.6

3

20 IM Melia Salome 2392 Georgia 2460 5.0 7 71.4 4
21 IM Dembo Yelena 2468 Greece 2459 5.5 9 61.1 1

50

WGM

Reizniece-Ozola Dana

2281

Latvia

2344

5.0

9

55.6

1

61

WGM

L’ami Alina

2364

Romania

2308

3.0

7

42.9

1

68

WGM

Rudolf Anna

2347

Hungary

2286

3.5

7

50.0

2

70

WGM

Calzetta Ruiz Monica

2301

Spain

2284

4.5

7

64.3

2

73

WIM

Kazimova Narmin

2241

Azerbaijan

2278

3.5

7

50.0

2

87

IM

Houska Jovanka

2415

England

2221

2.5

8

31.3

1

 So, it looks like Kateryna Lahno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Melia Salome, Dana Reizniece-Ozola and Narmin Kazimova will gain some ratings points as a result of their performances at the 2011 European Team Chess Championships - Women.  Congratulations!

2011 European Team Chess Championships - Women

I think it's safe to say that Armenians love chess.  Tournaments in which Armenian players are participating are regularly covered in the Armenian press, usually with equal attention being paid to the country's female players.  A pretty strong Armenian women's team is playing in the European Team Chess Championships right now and, ah, they're doing better than the male players.  Of course, it's just the beginning of a long tournament: 

From panarmenian.net
Armenian women’s team defeats Croatia in European Chess Championship round 2

November 5, 2011 - 10:30 AMT

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenian women’s team defeated Croatia 2,5:1,5 in the 2nd round of the European Chess Championship in Porto Carras.

GM Elina Danielian won her game, while Lilit Mkrtchyan, Maria Kirsova and Lilit Galoyan played in a draw to take the 9th position with 4.5 points. Serbians top the standings with 7.5 points.

In the next round, Armenia will face Germany.
Men’s team lost the 2nd round and dropped to the 19th place with 4.5 points.


Check out this website on the ETCC put together by Chessdom.  Very nice.

An interview with GM Kateryna Lahno after R2 (top board Women's Team, Ukraine):

16th European Club Cup for Women 2011

How did my ladies do?  Here are the relative rankings of players who played five or more games by Board.  I've highlighted the ladies I was following in red:

Board 1

Rank		Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	man	Rtg-O
1	GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	2528	AVS	2674	0	2481
2	GM	Zhukova Natalia	2416	Giprorechtrans	2551	0	2494
3	GM	Hou Yifan	2578	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	2526	0	2401
4	IM	Bojkovic Natasa	2378	BAS	2466	0	2409
5	GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	2469	SHSM-RGSU	2459	0	2459
6	GM	Dzagnidze Nana	2525	AEM Luxten Timisoara	2420	0	2420
7	IM	Fierro Baquero Martha L	2378	CS R. Fischer Chieti	2408	0	2351
8	GM	Danielian Elina	2517	Mika	2402	0	2402
9	WIM	Yildiz Betul Cemre	2308	Anatolia	2254	0	2379
10	WFM	Dimitrijevic Aleksandra	2287	ZSK Maribor	2200	0	2393
11	WFM	Johnsen Sylvia	2038	Oslo Schakselskap	1571	0	2371

Board 2

Rank		Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	man	Rtg-O
1	IM	Muzychuk Anna	2545	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	2611	0	2418
2	IM	Dembo Yelena	2471	BAS	2606	0	2413
3	GM	Lahno Kateryna	2554	AVS	2589	0	2464
4	IM	Harika Dronavalli	2505	Mika	2578	0	2420
5	IM	Gunina Valentina	2499	SHSM-RGSU	2550	0	2425
6	IM	Zatonskih Anna	2508	AEM Luxten Timisoara	2469	0	2419
7	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2465	Giprorechtrans	2447	0	2504
8	WIM	Ozturk Kubra	2260	Anatolia	2289	0	2346
9	IM	Sedina Elena	2337	CS R. Fischer Chieti	2280	0	2337
10	WGM	Srebrnic Ana	2222	ZSK Maribor	2224	0	2349
11	WFM	Frank-Nielsen Marie	2020	Oslo Schakselskap	1946	0	2347

Board 3

Rank		Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	man	Rtg-O
1	IM	Javakhishvili Lela	2464	AEM Luxten Timisoara	2593	0	2400
2	IM	Zaiatz Elena	2441	Giprorechtrans	2498	0	2441
3	GM	Cramling Pia	2489	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	2473	0	2348
4	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2525	AVS	2434	0	2434
5	GM	Zhu Chen	2490	Mika	2415	0	2365
6	IM	Zimina Olga	2337	CS R. Fischer Chieti	2344	0	2219
7		Khachatourian Yerazik	1967	Oslo Schakselskap	2112	0	2237
8	WGM	Chelushkina Irina	2287	BAS	2089	0	2362
9	WCM	Kaya Emel	1994	Anatolia	2083	0	2323
10	WIM	Ankerst Milka	2084	ZSK Maribor	1866	0	2267

Board 4

Rank		Name	Rtg	Team	Rp	man	Rtg-O
1	WGM	Kashlinskaya Alina	2385	SHSM-RGSU	2484	0	2291
2	WGM	Pogonina Natalija	2446	AVS	2482	0	2357
3	IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2475	Mika	2450	0	2292
4	IM	Foisor Cristina-Adela	2416	AEM Luxten Timisoara	2425	0	2276
5	GM	Socko Monika	2490	Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo	2360	0	2303
6	WIM	Drljevic Ljilja	2256	BAS	2290	0	2290
7	IM	Vasilevich Irina	2393	Giprorechtrans	2217	0	2410
8		Orehek Spela	2020	ZSK Maribor	2085	0	2234
9		Di Primio Eugenia	1974	CS R. Fischer Chieti	2037	0	2162
10		Reppen Ellisiv	1969	Oslo Schakselskap	1745	0	2146