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:
Rk	Team	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Armenia	*	2½	2	2	2½	2	2	2½	3½	3½	14	22.5	0
2	China	1½	*	2½	2½	2½	3½	2	3	1½	3½	13	22.5	0
3	Ukraine	2	1½	*	2	1½	2½	2½	2½	2½	2½	12	19.5	0
4	Russia	2	1½	2	*	3	3	1	1½	4	3	10	21.0	0
5	Hungary	1½	1½	2½	1	*	2	2½	2	3½	3	10	19.5	0
6	USA	2	½	1½	1	2	*	2½	3	2½	3½	10	18.5	0
7	Azerbaijan	2	2	1½	3	1½	1½	*	3	2	2½	9	19.0	0
8	India	1½	1	1½	2½	2	1	1	*	2½	2½	7	15.5	0
9	Israel	½	2½	1½	0	½	1½	2	1½	*	3	5	13.0	0
10	Egypt	½	½	1½	1	1	½	1½	1½	1	*	0	9.0	0

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!):

14	GM	Ivanchuk Vassily	2768	Ukraine	5.0	9	55.6	1
15	GM	Gashimov Vugar	2760	Azerbaijan	5.0	9	55.6	2
16	GM	Polgar Judit	2699	Hungary	5.0	9	55.6	3
17	GM	Mamedyarov Shakhriyar	2765	Azerbaijan	5.0	9	55.6	3

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:

18	GM Timman, Jan	5.0	M	2575	2428	-1.60	48.0	25.25	1	½	1	½	0	½	½	1	0
19	IM Vishnu Prasanna	5.0	M	2340	2434	+1.14	47.5	23.25	1	0	1	½	1	0	½	1	0
20	FM Ikeda, Junta	5.0	M	2349	2371	+0.27	46.5	23.0	1	1	0	0	1	0	1	0	1
21	IM Turova, Irina	5.0	F	2413	2405	-0.02	46.0	21.75	1	0	1	1	½	0	½	1	0
22	IM Hendriks, Willy	5.0	M	2415	2365	-0.34	43.0	22.0	½	1	0	1	1	0	1	½	0
23	IM Brown, Andrew	5.0	M	2202	2277	+0.66	42.5	20.5	½	0	½	1	1	0	1	1	0
24	WGM L'Ami, Alina	5.0	F	2312	2348	+0.53	41.5	22.0	0	1	1	1	½	0	½	0	1
25	FM Sowray, Peter	5.0	M	2350	2300	-0.53	41.0	20.0	1	0	1	½	0	0	1	½	1
26	GM Deepan Chakkravarthy	5.0	M	2470	2323	-1.57	41.0	19.25	1	1	0	½	0	1	½	0	1

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

2009 Politiken Cup

Round 3 in progress, so some of the scores for Round 3 have already been incorporated into the standings. Here are the chess femmes in the top 100: (4) 54. Svetlana Agrest 2260 2½ (17) 17. Marie Sebag 2531 2 ((40) 47. Jasmin Bejtovic 2307 2 (74) 19. Viktorija Cmilyte 2470 1½ (79) 154. Susanna Berg 2020 1½ ( There is a long way to go. I'm sure Cmilyte will pull up in the rankings, as will Sebag.

Politiken Cup

This is the most entertaining introduction to a tournament I've ever read! What will happen to the frantic Chess Queen? Eek! There once was a queen who would do anything to fight for her king. Her powers on the battlefield were almost unlimited. She could move in any direction and get where she wanted to go in an instant. She had a small army also willing to die for their king. Eight farmers who could move only forward and not retreat, but who were good at staking out territory. Two knights on horses who jumped at a slight angle. Two elephants who moved with alarming quickness in diagonal lines across the battlefield (she started calling them ‘bishops’ after her conversion to Christianity). And two chariots (which she called ‘rooks’ from her knowledge of Persian). Her only problem was that the enemy had a queen with exactly the same powers and the same kind of ferocious army. She knew she’d have to rely on strategy rather than brute force, and that she’d have to hold back and let her henchmen spill some blood before she came along to clean up. First she sent out some farmers to establish control of the center of the battlefield. Then she sent out the knights to protect the farmers. She quickly built a human shield of three farmers and a chariot for her king to hide behind. Things were going well until the enemy elephants cut down her knights and her farmers were left exposed. The enemy farmers cut hers down like butter. ‘Useless fools!’ she screamed. She had to dash out to the rescue much earlier than she wanted. She killed the elephants and took down a knight but left herself completely exposed to enemy attack. She knew the kingdom depended on her, and for the first time in her life she felt all alone. To find out how this story ends. . . The Copenhagen Chess Festival 2009 including Politiken Cup 2009 and Nordisk Championship begins July 18, 2009 and ends July 26, 2009. Official website (English). Thanks much to Brendan Cooney for writing such a cool intro to this popular event. Traditionally, several top-rated chess femmes participate in the Politiken Cup! This year's enrollees include (this is not a full list of chess femmes): GM Marie Sebag (FRA 2531) WGM Viktorija Cmilyte (Lithuania) 2470 (Photo above) WIM Svetlana Agrest (country???) 2260 Eva Jiretorn (country???) 2150 Sebag and Cmilyte will have their work cut out for them, as the top GMs include a player over 2700 and many in the high-2600s.

Politiken Cup

Chess femme standings after Round 7: (20) IM Victoria Cimilyte 5.5 (30) IM Tania Sachdev 5.0 (63) IM Monika Socko 4.0 (78) WIM Ilena Krasenkova 4.0 (94) WFM Evgenia Pavlovskaia 4.0 (102) WIM Olena Dvoretsja 4.0 (137) WIM Christin Andersson 3.5