Kosintseva Sisters Leave Russian National Women's Chess Team

HOLY HATHOR!  The Kotsintseva sisters have quit the Russian National Women's Chess Team because they refuse to play under the leadership of team coach Sergei Rublevsky.

I haven't read about the specific issues that may have arisen with this male GM trying to coach an all-female chess team, but I know that issues have come up in the past regarding male coaches with other women's teams, including a medal-women U.S. Women's Olympiad Team the one and only time GM Susan Polgar played for a United States women's team.  So it's not exactly like these issues haven't come up before -- of course they have!

I am left wondering - what the hell did Rublevsky do to "emotionally shake up" the Russian Women's Team during the last Olympiad.  It's not sexist to say that a coach cannot treat a woman like he would treat a man.

In any event, the Kotsintseva sisters are OFF THE RUSSIAN TEAM, and the resulting team is left seriously weakened in their absence.  No ifs, ands or buts about it!  There is an article at Chessbase that sensationalistically exclaims:

Kosintseva sisters abandon the Russian women's team
06.02.2013– From 2-13 March 2013 the Women's World Team Championship will be held in Astana, Kazakhstan. The Russian team, which won the Chess Olympiad last September, has lost it two top players, Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva. The sisters say they refuse to play for the team under the leadership of trainer Sergei Rublevsky, citing 'psychological incompatibility'. News and interview.

That article title, of course, is complete bullshit.  I suspect it would be more accurate to say that the Russian Chess Federation has abandoned two of its highest-rated female chess stars in order to support a mysoginistic bully because, well, that's sure what this looks like, dudes.

One can depend on GM Polgar to report all the chess news, and her blog picked up the radio interview of Nadezhda Kosintseva.

I am waiting to see if any of the remaining members of the Russian National Women's Chess Team, including popular players who have blogs, will comment on this development.  They may feel restrained from or refrain from doing so because of chess politics. 

Higher League 61st Russian Women's Chess Championship

Of the 62 players participating in what I understand to be a "qualifying" round for the real deal later this year, under the name of the HL 64th Russian Chess Champinship, GM Tatiana Kosintseva is the sole female, ranked 40th on the list with an ELO of 2559.  Smart move on her part, she's bound to take a beating and yet her ELO should go up because of the tougher competition she's facing.  Two of my favorite male players are also in this event:  my romantic hero who plays chess like an 18th century swashbuckler, GM Alexander Morozevich, ranked 4th on the list with an ELO of 2694, and GM Alexander Khalifman, who won the 1999 FIDE World Chess Champion title, ranked 22nd on the list with an ELO of 2627. 

There is only one more round to go.  After 9, Morozevich is in first place with 7.0/9.  Kosintseva is in respectable 26th place with 5.0 - I'm impressed.  Alexander Khalifman is in 38th place with 4.0. 

The Russian women have their own championshp event this year, the 61st, consisting of 34 players and 9 rounds.  I see none of the top Russian female chess stars in the list, so either they aren't participating this year or they will be seeded into the final event to be held later this year.  Here are the standings after R8, one more round to go:

Rk.		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	IM	Zaiatz Elena	RUS	2430	7.0	35.5	32.5	6
2	WIM	Charochkina Daria	RUS	2320	6.0	37.0	27.5	5
3	IM	Gunina Valentina	RUS	2487	6.0	36.5	30.0	6
4	WGM	Shadrina Tatiana	RUS	2397	5.5	34.0	21.0	5
5	WGM	Kovanova Baira	RUS	2361	5.5	32.0	23.0	4
6	IM	Ovod Evgenija	RUS	2404	5.0	36.0	23.0	5
7	IM	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	RUS	2427	5.0	34.0	24.0	3
8	WFM	Kostrikina Anna	RUS	2072	5.0	29.5	19.5	4
9	WGM	Girya Olga	RUS	2394	5.0	28.5	19.5	4
10	IM	Bodnaruk Anastasia	RUS	2419	4.5	32.5	24.0	4
11	IM	Romanko Marina	RUS	2387	4.5	32.0	24.0	3
12	WIM	Tomilova Elena	RUS	2317	4.5	32.0	23.5	3
13	FM	Pustovoitova Daria	RUS	2306	4.5	30.5	20.0	3
14	WIM	Severiukhina Zoja	RUS	2291	4.5	30.5	18.5	4
15	WIM	Ambartsumova Karina	RUS	2303	4.0	34.5	22.5	3
16	IM	Vasilevich Irina	RUS	2342	4.0	32.0	21.0	3
17	IM	Matveeva Svetlana	RUS	2380	4.0	31.0	20.5	3
18		Bukhteeva Viktoria	RUS	2178	4.0	30.5	19.5	2
19	WFM	Goryachkina Aleksandra	RUS	2103	4.0	29.5	16.0	2
20	WIM	Ivakhinova Inna	RUS	2326	4.0	25.5	13.0	3
21		Drozdova Dina	RUS	2239	3.5	30.5	16.5	2
22	WFM	Semenova Elena	RUS	2188	3.5	27.5	15.0	2
23		Zizlova Sofia	RUS	2149	3.5	26.5	15.0	2
24	WIM	Bezgodova Svetlana	RUS	2154	3.5	26.0	14.5	3
25	IM	Savina Anastasia	RUS	2389	3.5	25.5	12.5	3
26	WFM	Kindinova Ekaterina	RUS	2159	3.0	29.5	13.5	2
27		Severina Maria	RUS	2104	3.0	28.0	13.0	3
28	WIM	Ivkina Olga	RUS	2294	3.0	25.0	9.5	2
29	WIM	Fominykh Maria	RUS	2291	3.0	24.5	8.5	2
30	WFM	Belenkaya Dina	RUS	2198	2.5	29.0	14.5	2
31	WFM	Travkina Anastasia	RUS	2176	2.5	28.0	11.5	1
32		Balaian Alina	RUS	2163	2.5	22.5	10.5	2
33		Petrova Olga	RUS	2256	1.5	25.0	8.0	1
34		Antipina Natalia	RUS	0	1.0	23.0	7.0	1

2009 Aeroflot - Final Standings

The results are in. Here are the chess femmes' final standings after Round 9 in Tournaments A1 and A2. Susan Polgar reports at her blog on the great performance of and that she earned a GM norm. I've also added some players of interest to me - not chess femmes! Tournament A1: 1 GM Bacrot, Etienne 6.5 FRA M 2722 2775 2 GM Moiseenko, Alexander 6.5 UKR M 2676 2770 13 IM Kosintseva, Tatiana w 5.5 RUS F 2497 2702 (Wow!) 32 GM Ehlvest, Jaan 5.0 USA M 2595 2637 37 GM So, Wesley j 5.0 PHI M 2627 2577 40 GM Onischuk, Alexander 4.5 USA M 2659 2580 50 GM Akobian, Varuzhan 4.0 USA M 2619 2528 61 IM Robson, Ray j 3.5 USA M 2455 2516 70 WGM Shen, Yang w 3.0 CHN F 2448 2464 72 IM Kosintseva, Nadezhda w 3.0 RUS F 2486 2472 76 of 78 players in Tournament A1 completed the event. Tournament A2: 1 IM Danin, Alexandre 7.0 RUS M 2465 2655 2 GM Khachiyan, Melikset 7.0 USA M 2519 2675 22 WGM Romanko, Marina w 5.0 RUS F 2451 2552 24 WGM Munguntuul, Batkhuyag w 5.0 MGL F 2425 2536 25 IM Melia, Salome w 5.0 GEO F 2422 2542 40 Ju, Wenjun jw 4.5 CHN F 2392 2490 44 GM Peng, Zhaoqin w 4.5 NED F 2461 2446 58 GM Ivanov, Alexander 4.0 USA M 2541 2370 61 WFM Gunina, Valentina w 4.0 RUS F 2400 2416 72 WIM Zhang, Xiaowen w 3.0 CHN F 2357 2300 74 WIM Kashlinskaya, Alina jw 3.0 RUS F 2302 2315 76 IM Krush, Irina w 3.0 USA F 2457 2301 78 WIM Pourkashiyan, Atousa w 2.5 IRI F 2272 2242 81 WGM Gu, Xiaobing w 2.0 CHN F 2283 2159 All 84 players completed the A2 Tournament.

1st World Women's Team Chess Championship-2

The 1st Women’s Team Chess Championships started on May 19 and two rounds of action have been completed. There have been some surprises, including four wins by the Chinese team over the Russians (whose team includes the two strong Kosintseva sisters, Tatiana and Nadezhda, who finished first and third at the recent European Individual Women’s Chess Championships). The 12-year old up-and-coming star Hou Yifan is on the Chinese team. It really is too bad the Americans are playing, it would have been great experience to play against such strong opponents. Instead, we have a team from Botswana, that all the other teams will beat-up on but the team members will probably have a great time. How can Botswana afford to send a team to this championship, when the Americans couldn’t even keep their team together (or afford to send the team if it had stayed together)? Pathetic, just pathetic. Official website: http://www.chesswomen.com/en/ Round 1 results: CHN (3½) vs VIE (½) Zhao Xue 1-0 Le Kieu Thien Kim Hou Yifan 1-0 Le Thanh Tu Ruan Lufei 1-0 Hoang Thi Bao Tram Shen Yang ½-½ Nguyen Thi Thanh An POL (4) vs BOT (0) Socko, Monika 1-0 Sabure, Tuduetso Zawadzka, Jolanta 1-0 Lopang, Tshepiso Szczepkowska, Karina 1-0 Sabure, Ontiretse Przezdziecka, Marta 1-0 Pilane, Masego, Sylvia RUS (3) vs GER (1) Kosintseva, Tatiana ½-½ Paehtz, Elisabeth Kosintseva, Nadezhda ½-½ Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino Korbut, Ekaterina 1-0 Nill, Jessica Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina 1-0 Schoene, Maria Randi GEO (2½) vs CZE (1½) Chiburdanidze, Maya 1-0 Jackova, Jana Javakhishvili, Lela 1-0 Sikorova, Olga Khukhashvili, Sopiko ½-½ Blazkova, Petra Gvetadze, Sofio 0-1 Nemcova, Katerina UKR (3) vs ARM (1) Lahno, Kateryna ½-½ Danielian, Elina Ushenina, Anna 1-0 Mkrtchian, Lilit Gaponenko, Anna 1-0 Aghinian, Nelly Vasilevich, Tatiana ½-½ Andriasian, Siranush Round 2 results: VIE (2.5) v. ARM (1.5) Le Kieu Thien Kim 0-1 Danielian, Elina Le Thanh Tu ½-½ Mkrtchian, Lilit Hong Thi Bao Tram 1-0 Andriasian, Siranush Pham Le Thao Nguyen 1-0 Aghabekian, Liana CZE (1.0) v. UKR (3.0) Jackova, Jana ½-½ Lahno, Kateryna Sikorova, Olga 0-1 Ushenina, Anna Blazkova, Petra 0-1 Vasilevich, Tatiana Nemcova, Katerina ½-½ Vozovic, Oksana BOT (0) v. GEO (4.0) Sabure, Tuduetso 0-1 Javakhishvili, Lela Lopang, Tshepiso 0-1 Khurtsidze, Nino Sabure, Ontiretse 0-1 Khukhashvili, Sopiko Pilane Masego, Sylvia 0-1 Gvetadze, Sofio GER (1.0) v. POL (3.0) Paehtz, Elisabeth ½-½ Socko, Monika Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino ½-½ Rajlich, Iweta Nill, Jessica 0-1 Zawadzka, Jolanta Ohme, Melanie 0-1 Szczepkowska, Karina CHN (4.0) v. RUS (0) Zhao Xue 1-0 Kosintseva, Tatiana Hou Yifan 1-0 Kosintseva, Nadezhda Ruan Lufei 1-0 Korbut, Ekaterina Huang, Qian 1-0 Tairova, Elena

Typical Research Project Part 2 - Goddess Synchronicity

Ohmygoddess! I didn't think this would happen HERE - I mean, whoever is going to read this blog - but I guess I should know by now that one can always expect the unexpected when dealing with the Goddess of Chess. Synchronicity has been the sounding bell in my relationship with chess and my research since I and my chessly cohorts first embarked upon this path way back in December, 1998. Why should I be surprised when it shows up here? I shouldn't be - but I was! I must be getting old, sigh. After I wrote my prior post "Typical Research Project" this afternoon, I visited David Shenk's blog and wrote a post about a few examples of chessplayers that I thought fit the profile of his research. I'd been meaning to do that for some time but did not get around to it until earlier this afternoon. Mind, I've not yet finished David's book "A History of Chess" - I'm not quite to the half-way point. I then settled down to a couple of hours of reading on my deck, and then a 2 hour nap on my recliner. Ahhhh, I love my weekends! This evening, I visited Chessville and made a few posts there under my favorite topic, about women in chess/women and chess. Some people at Chessville evidently don't think much of me, comparing me to Sam Sloan (seriously!) But that's been done in private email - the people who (so I've been told) don't like me don't post such stuff at the Chessville forum, where folks could then debate the merits of whether I am, actually, a female Sam Sloan. Like the title of Jen Shahade's first book (that I didn't like at first because I thought it was denigrating to women, but after past and recent experiences, I have a better understanding about why Ms. Shahade titled her book that way), once a chess bitch, always a chess bitch. And proud of it. I just wish I could play chess as well as I think I can write... (Har!) Anyway, one of the posts awaiting me at Chessville was about the performance of the Kosintseva sisters in the recently concluded 2007 European Individual Chess Championships. I'd done a few posts there on the progress of that event, including the high drama of the sister versus sister game (it ended in a draw). Tatiana Kosintseva took first place with an impressive 10/11 score and had an even more impressive performance rating of 2774 - which puts her right up there with the elite chessplayers of the world. Her ELO is 2459 so her performance rating is STAGGERING. TN is 21 years old. Her older sister (by a year), Nadezhda Kosintseva, finished in 3rd place with 8/11; NK also had a fine performance rating of 2568, almost 100 points above her current ELO rating of 2475, but not staggering. GM Antoaneta Stefanova, no slouch when it comes to bringing the goods, finished in second place after a strong second-half performance, with 8/11 and a performance rating of 2572, also nearly 100 points above her current ELO of 2496. You can read more about all of this stuff here at my Chess Femme News report. All in all, it was a really impressive event. Lo and behold, while I was perusing through GM Susan Polgar's chess blog tonight, I discovered this article posted there, from that new chess guy over at the New York Times (McClain) - all about the Kosintseva sisters! Knock me over with a feather! The article also mentioned David Shenk's book "A History of Chess" - I haven't yet got to the part in his book where he talks about the Polgar sisters - and now I feel rather silly for having done that post at his blog - of course David Shenk would have known about the Polgars and their training, duh. What was I thinking??? I will keep following the Kosintseva sisters' chess careers with interest. Will they continue to improve and work their way up the ELO ladder? Or will they, like so many chess femmes before them and around them, seem to plateau and, eventually, drop out of the game altogether? It's a tough way of life, professional chess. There are so many other easier ways to make a living.