Chess Femme News

The Times of India
Easy outing for Humpy in Women's World Chess Championship
Hari Hara Nandanan, TNN, Dec 6, 2010, 12.57am IST

CHENNAI: India had a mixed bag in the first game in the first round of the Women's World Chess Championship at Hatay ( Turkey) on Saturday. While favourite Koneru Humpy whipped Melissa Greeff, a South African rated 518 points below her on the Elo scale, Dronavalli Harika conceded a draw to compatriot Kruttika Nadig with white pieces, a result that puts the India No 2 in a must-win situation in the return game with black if she has to avoid tiebreaks in the first round.

In fact, Harika's draw was one of the two surprises in the first game of the first round as she is expected to pull off some surprises by virtue of her healthy 2525 rating.

The second surprise of the first day was credited to local girl Yildiz Betul Cemre, who held Grandmaster Pia Cramling of Sweden (2526) to a draw.

Not chess femme news, but interesting nonetheless.  From Chessbase:
Rethinking top level chess – a mandatory move
05.12.2010 – Who is the strongest player in the world? Does the World Champion win his title in the most effective way? How much should we depend on the Elo rating system, and are there better alternatives for determining world rankings? After three years spent writing a PhD thesis on games and sports at the Paris-Sorbonne Manouk Borzakian turns his attention to chess in this thought-provoking paper.

Not mentioned is what I call, in women's chess, the "women's rating ghetto" effect of bunched - and low - ELOs.  The same effect happens when the same elite male players face the same elite male players over and over again, blocking out those below from having a chance to compete and earn those valuable ELO points on the same level.  Plus, it's damn borning.

From Chessbase
Report on First Game of R1, Women's World Chess Championship
2010 Women's World Chess Championship - Round one
05.12.2010

Lots of nice photos - the guys (and gals) at Chessbase are famous for taking lots of photos of the prettiest female players, like former Women's World Chess Champion  GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria (and her second, GM Cheparinov, ain't bad looking either, yum)

Glad to see Dylan Loeb McClain at The New York Times chess blog Gambit is featuring lots of articles about the chess femmes:

November 22, 2010, 1:08 am For Some Women, Russian Championship Is a Warm-up for World Championship
By DYLAN LOEB MCCLAIN

For 2nd Year, Younger Women Beat Older Men at Czech Event
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: December 4, 2010

Manager Blames Marriage for His Star’s Slump
By DYLAN LOEB McCLAIN
Published: November 27, 2010
Marriage seems to have hurt Veselin Topalov’s career, for now.

Topalov, 35, a former world champion who was ranked No. 1 in the world as recently as 14 months ago, has seen his ranking slide to No. 5.

His manager, Silvio Danailov, said in a recent interview with the Web site Chessdom.com that Topalov married a few months ago and was “enjoying life a little bit,” adding, “He is not motivated to play tournaments right now.”

His latest setback occurred at the Ajedrez UNAM Quadrangular tournament in Mexico City, which ended a week ago. It was a four-player rapid chess event.

Topalov easily won his semifinal match against Manuel Leon Hoyos of Mexico, 3.5 to 0.5. But in the final against Judit Polgar of Hungary, an opponent he was favored to beat, he was trounced, 3.5 to 0.5. In the last two games, he barely put up any resistance.

LOL! (That's my comment). Blame it on the new wife, heh? OHMYGODDESS!

What Do the Norwegians Get Out of This???

An interesting development in the story on the alleged "St. John the Baptist" relics and St. Ivan Island story out of Bulgaria (see post below for details):

Archaeology: Excavation and restoration of St Ivan island near Sozopol financed by Norway
Mon, Aug 09 2010 12:09 CET by The Sofia Echo staff

Excavation works and renovation of the monastery complex on St Ivan Island, off the coast of Sozopol in southern Bulgarian, have been financed by the Norwegian embassy in Sofia, an embassy media statement announced on August 9 2010.

The embassy has provided 580 000 leva, covering 90 per cent of the cost for the excavation and restoration of the monastery grounds, encompassing a total of 62 projects in all, the report said.

According to the Norwegian embassy announcement, there will be a second phase of financing, covering the period until 2014, worth about 126.6 million euro, which the Scandinavian country will provide to Bulgaria for a number of different projects such as preservation of cultural heritage, green energy, improvement or energy efficiency, scientific research, education and others.

At the end of July, excavations on Saint Ivan island, part of the Norwegian-sponsored project, unearthed an exquisite marble reliquary incorporated into the church’s altar, the historian Bozhidar Dimitrov, director of the National History Museum and minister without portfolio in charge of Bulgarians abroad, told Focus news agency on July 28 2010.

He suggested that the reliquary might hold the relics of John the Baptist.

St Ivan Island is the largest of five Bulgarian islands in the Black Sea, with an area of 0.66 square kilometres just off the Bulgarian Black Sea coast near Sozopol, a town rich in history and a popular tourist destination, and is separated by a strait several hundred metres long from the small neighbouring St. Peter Island. It is 920m from the Stolets peninsula, Sozopol's Old Town.

Once the island was converted to Christianity, a monastical complex was built between the 5th-6th century on top of the ruins of the old Roman temple, including the Basilica of the Mother of God. Around the 7th-9th century, the basilica was abandoned only to be reconstructed in the 10th century.

The Monastery of John the Forerunner and the Baptist grew into an important centre of Christianity in the region. Archaeological research was carried out after 1985 for two years, which revealed a royal residence, a library, part of the fortified wall with the gate and several monastic cells.

***************************************************************

Veselin Topalov used to
have hair!

It became apparent in his statements in the articles cited in the post below that Diaspora Minister Dimitrov fervently desires to turn St. Ivan Island and Sozopol into "pilgrimage" stops for devout Christians (despite the naked women visiting the relics),  featuring the allegedc relics of St. John the Baptist as well as the ruins of several early churches - a sort of Christian Mecca.  That is a fine and worthy goal for a cultural minister, seeking tourist development for his country.

What I want to know is what the heck do the Norwegians get out of funding this multi-year and very expensive archaeological endeavor? 

Look! Magnus Carlsen is
not in diapers anymore!

Call me paranoid.  Call me suspicious.  Call me suspiciously paranoid.   I can't help but wonder if this has something to do with a possible future anticipated world champion chess match between World Chess #1 Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and World Chess #2 Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.  Oh my oh my, what machinations are going on behind the scenes, heh?  Is Silvio Danailov related to Minister Dimitrov by any chance?  Hey, just wondering.

You may be right, I may be crazy, but then it just may be a lunatic you're looking for - so sayeth Billy Joel...

$750,000 Purse for Kamsky-Topalov Match

Chessbase breaks the following news: 'Lvov awaits Topalov and Kamsky!'15.05.2008 – Breaking news: Russian chess journalists Yuri Vasiliev has now confirmed that the semifinal Candidates Match between Veselin Topalov and Gata Kamsky will take place in Lvov, Ukraine, for a prize fund of US $750,000. The full story, including Yuri's verbatim interview with Chernenko, will appear tomorrow on ChessBase. Here first details. Just over a month ago we reported that FIDE had extended the deadline for bids for the Kamsky-Topalov Candidates Match. The Bulgarian Chess Federation protested vigorously, but then the reason for FIDE's decision became clear: a US $750,000 bid to stage the match in Lvov, western Ukraine, had been announced by Kamsky's manager Alexander Chernenko. There were a lot of doubts if this offer was real. Today Chernenko has stated that the financial guarantees have now been received by FIDE, at their Swiss bank account: “The sum of US $935,000 has appeared on the bank’s computer screen in Lausanne “, Vasiliev quotes Chernenko as saying. Rest of article.