Recap of Chess Femme News - 2010 Part 2

Picking up from yesterday:

August, 2010:

Three-time U.S. Women's Chess Champion, WGM Anjelina Belakovskaia, starts her own chess program/camp for kids
I selected this article as an event because (1) I love Belakovskaia's "back story"; (2) instead of doing nothing, she did something about what she perceived to be a lack and/or problem in her area; (3) I love stories with happy endings.  Belakovskaia's life-story shows that with hard work and true grit, you can make your dreams come true.  I was also glad to see that Belakovskaia has been playing in an event here and there once again, after being absent from OTB play for several years.

Girls U-20 World Chess Championship
Gold, Silver and Bronze --
1 1 IM Muzychuk, Anna SLO 2527 11.0 0.00 81.0 27298 2557 0.42

2 3 WGM Girya, Olga RUS 2376 10.5 0.00 75.0 27158 2501 1.88
3 11 WGM Padmini, Rout IND 2275 10.0 0.00 73.5 27433 2477 3.37

July, 2010:
 
2010 U.S. Women's Chess Championship
IM Irina Krush staging a dramatic "come-back" from a rather dismal performance (for her) in the 2009 Championship, and dominated the tournament throughout its run.  The Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award went to Tatev Abrahamyan, the second time she has won the award that Goddesschess has offered since 2007. 
 
June - nothing, NADA!
 
May, 2010 - I was recovering from an illness for much of the month and wrote no chess news to speak of.  Judit Polgar did take part in the President's Cup in Baku but she did not have a very good result, finishing well back on the list of strong players with 3.0. 
 
April, 2010:
 
Judit Polgar pulled a performance rating of 2901while defeating rising star David Navara at the .  ČEZ CHESS TROPHY
 
Board Games Studies XIII Colloquium took place in Paris - and proved to be extremely popular.  Gee, I wonder why...
 
March, 2010:
 
Sad news when IM Elena Tairova of Russia passed away at just 18 years of age.  She had been a very promising talent with an ELO of 2455 at the time of her death. 
 
Women's FIDE Grand Prix Series Announced
While there were some great tournaments held under these auspices, the final one in Chile did not, to my knowledge, take place, and as far as I am aware no new announcements have been forthcoming regarding the continuation of the Women's Grand Prix series.  So much for FIDE's efforts to develope women's chess.  We get screwed over, again.  
 
"Chess Divas" play simul to raise money for Haiti Relief Fund
 
European Individual Women's Chess Championship
Won convincingly by GM Pia Cramling, clear first with an incredible 9.0/11
 
February, 2010:
 
Judit Polgar - Gregory Kaidanov Sicilian Theme Match.  Money was put up by a private sponsor just so he could watch Polgar play some chess up close and personal.  Judit won.
 
2010 Aeroflot - a very large, and very important Russian super-tournament that showcases new talents and gives a chance for them to compete against the "wily veterans."  As a group, female players did 'bleh', except for WFM Gulnar Marfat Mammadova of Azerjaiban, who led the B Group the entire way except for the last round, when she accepted a draw rather than going for a win.  She took second place with 7.0/9.
 
London Chess Centre closes location after 18 years.  This was dismal news, like losing the Manhattan Chess Club all over again. 
 
January, 2010:
 
Gibtelecom (Gibraltar Chess Festival) once again featured a great mixed sex line-up of players with tempting prizes that lured top level players from all over the world. It was a fierce battle all the way to the final round with Koneru Humpy in 10th place overall.  In the end, though, she had to settle for 12th place overall after being leap-frogged by Natalia Zhukova, who earned her own GM title this year by the way.  GM Michael Adams took home top prize money after winning play-offs. 
 
And, finally, the awful litigation that engulfed the USCF and various Executive Board members after the 2007 Executive Board election was settled.  Mr. Sam Sloan, who began all the trouble by suing the USCF and everyone (nearly) under the sun for alleged defamation and other "acts" blah blah blah once again threw his hat into the ring and ran, unsuccessfully as it turned out, for one of two vacated seats on the EB.  Since there were only three people running for the two vacant EB seats, I leave my readers to draw their own conclusions...

Recap of Chess Femme News - 2010!

A brief review of stories - some big, some not so big - of Chess Femme News during 2010.

December, 2010:
GM Hou Yifan of China becomes youngest-ever Women's World Chess Champion at age 16
Hou's triumph caps a years-long surge of Chinese feminine chess talent who are now the ones to beat (other than, perhaps, the Georgians)

Meanwhile, GM Judit Polgar showed she still could play blitz and rapid with the boys, but did not finish in the top 10 of either 2010 European Championships (Blitz/Rapid) event....

November, 2010:
GM Koneru Humpy is a class act, and the second-highest rated female chessplayer in the entire world; GM Judit Polgar retains the top spot despite slipping below 2700 ELO.  Despite losing out to Hou Yifan in the 2010 Women's World Chess Championships for a second time (Koneru also lost to Hou in the 2008 version of the Championship), Koneru's overall results demonstrate that she is the better chessplayer. 

Czech Coal Chess Match 
15th European Club Cup for Women 2010:
2nd best player overall;
#1 board on winning team (Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo ) with 5.5/7, 1point ahead of team-mate GM Hou Yifan, wih 4.5 on #2 board

2010 Asian Team Chess Championships:
Indian Women were shut out of medals after drawing their final round with Vietnam.  The final three teams were China, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam. 

October, 2010:
Retrospect:  Lisa Lane, U.S. Women's Chess Champion

Philippines Chess Federation pulls Women's Team from upcoming Asian Games, purportedly because they don't stand a chance to medal

U.S. Teams shut out of medals at 2010 Chess Olympiads - we sucked.

September, 2010: 

GM Kateryna Lahno wins 2010 Women's World Blitz Championship

More tomorrow - I'm too tired to continue tonight :)