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(Photo from official website) Ohmygoddess! I can't believe they actually MADE Kosteniuk wear that hokey costume. Geez! No doubt thanks to Xena's presence up in the mountains making sure no terrorists attacked the chess femmes while they were in Nalchik, everyone came through safely. Everyone, that is, of the players who showed up. Eleven players chose not to participate:
Marie Sebag (FRA 2529), #7 Women's Top 100 These eleven players represented some 20% of the 64 players who qualified for the WWCC. What happened to the prize money that was not awarded to the 11 missing players? How much was left over at the end of the WWCC and where did it go? The violence has continued in Nalchik and surrounding areas unabated since the Russians crushed a small Islamic insurgency in 2005. The Muslims may have been stomped down, but rampant crime and banditry continue unabated. For instance, in January, 2008, the head of Nalchik's organized crime unit was shot and killed by unidentified assailants. There were a couple of indicative incidents in Nalchik while the WWCC was taking place: on September 3, 2008 an opposition reporter was attacked and seriously injured in Nalchik. On September 8, 2008, a police officer suffered a gunshot wound during an attack at a traffic stop (the area is checkered with traffic stops where motor vehicles and their passengers are stopped and searched by Russian police and paramilitary). Unfortunately, the Google link that brings up the Tass-Itar website for this story doesn't display the text. While the remaining chess femmes played some excellent chess, and a new champion was crowned (literally), this event is permanently tarnished in the record books because of the gaffes of FIDE and the organizers - and the boycott by 20% of the players. Although FIDE and the organizers knew that the Georgian players and several other players would not participate and had been so notified ahead of time, the organizers chose NOT to reset the pairings for round 1. Why not? As far as I'm aware, no explanation was given. Yeah, it was in the "official rules." Does anyone have a copy of the "official rules" before the Georgian players published their open letter saying they weren't coming (a couple weeks before the WWCC began). Oh well, whatever. As we well know, darlings, rules can - and are - changed all the time, particularly in FIDE events, per FIDE whims. This is, quite simply, malfeasance on the part of the organizers/FIDE. There was time to reset the pairs to account for the players the organizers knew would not be playing. The result was that several Round 1 players were made to sit at empty chessboards for two games waiting for opponents who weren't going to show up. Farce! Har! Then, there was the decision to have play-offs using two rapid, three blitz and then an Armageddon game, if necessary, to decide who would move on. The time control on the Armageddon game was white with six minutes/black with five minutes and draw odds. One Round 1 match went all the way to the Armageddon game - Socko/Foisor. You can watch it here. Ridiculous that players have to be subjected to such bullsh!t. The video of the Socko/Foisor Armageddon game speaks for itself and - surprise, surprise - there was controversy at the end. Foisor's flag fell and she lost on time. But Foisor said she had asked an arbiter to declare a draw based on the material on the board and their positions - a Knight and King each! The arbiter agreed with Foisor and declared a draw, thus sending Foisor through to Round 2 and sending Socko home! Socko filed an appeal. The Appeals Committee reversed the arbiter's decision and Socko was awarded a win. Damned if I understand the rules or how they were interpreted to achieve the ruling that was reached. Foisor went home, and Socko went on to Round 2. Round 1 Results (53 players): Xu
Yuhua (CHN 2483) 1.5/Solomons, Anzel (RSA 1895) 0.5 The ladies who didn't make it through earned $3,750 less FIDE's 20% cut off the top. Round 2 (30 players): Humpy Koneru and Alexandra Kosteniuk advanced directly to round 3 as they were paired against Georgians. Helllooooo! How stupid was that? Results: Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS
2412) 1.5/Xu Yuhua (CHN 2483) 0.5 The ladies who didn't make it through took home $5,500 less FIDE's 20%. Round 3 (14 players): Matveeva 0.0/Ushenina 2.0 The prize for being bounced out in this round was $8,000 less FIDE's 20%. Harika being knocked out by Mkrtchian was a shocker, as was Shen being "Nadia" Kosintseva! I have to admit, I was also personally shocked by Kosteniuk beating Tatiana Kosintseva, despite the ELO spread, because Kosteniuk hadn't played in any major events since the birth of her daughter in 2007. Little did I know at the time that she'd been doing kick-ass heavy duty training in her Florida home with a Russian grandmaster... Round 4 (8 players) - QUARTER FINALS: Several of the "favorites" made it through to Round 4, and a few surprises (Mkrtchian and Shen). While I mourned the early loss of my fellow Americans Zatonskih and Rohonyan (Rohonyan played some brilliant chess) and Indians Harika and Sachdev, and was shocked by the exit of both Kosintseva sisters, the players who were left were bound to produce some brilliant games, and they did.
Ushenina, Shen, Mkrtchian and Stefanova each took home $12,000 (less 20% for FIDE) . Round 5 (four players) - Semi-Finals:
And then there were four. Ohmygoddess! Kosteniuk (talented, yes, beautiful, yes, out of the action lately, yes! Surprise, surprise!), Humpy (heavily favored because of her ELO), Hou (up and coming wiz kid) and Pia Cramling (one of the female pioneers who earned a GM before it became fashionable: Susan Polgar, Pia Cramling and Judit Polgar all earned their GMs within months of each other). Who'd go home? Guess you know who I was rooting for - Humpy and Pia! Guess who lost? Humpy and Pia. Geez Louise! Talk about putting a jinx on someone. Eek!
Humpy battled and battled. Time and time again she fought her way back to tie Hou, and force another game. But she didn't make it to the dreaded Armageddon game (thank Goddess). Was she outplayed by Hou? Hell, I don't know. All I know is that, in the end, Yifan won one more game than Humpy did. Luck - nerves - whatever. I didn't think the better player won, and I was sad, sad, sad, to see Humpy leave the WWCC. Meanwhile, Kosteniuk dispatched Cramling with seeming ease - until you look at the games... Like I said, darlings, what do I know? I've never played in a tournament in my life, and never intend to! I'm the type that would bash the board over someone's head... Pia Cramling and Koneru Humpy each went home with $20,000. Small consolation. So close - and yet so far. Round 5 review of the games by GM Sergey Shipov. Round 6 - The Two: Kosteniuk versus Hou: Kosteniuk won, 'nuf said. I mean, seriously - was it ever a contest? Kosteniuk isn't quite two times as old as Hou, but she's had a MOUNTAIN more experience in the business of life and chess and - as we now know - she was totally loaded and baited for BEAR, having undergone intensive training with a GM for a good six months prior to the WWCC. The lady was not going home without a gold medal, and so she just snuck up on everyone and won it.
Was it a well-earned victory by Kosteniuk? Nah, not according to my book. But she's been there and almost did it before - after all, she is the lady who touts being "Vice-World Champion" - er, what? Well, whatever. I like Kosteniuk. She's got guts and stamina - as a kid her father made sure the family survived the collapse of the Soviet Empire by capitalizing on his daughters' chessplaying talents, but I think she didn't earn this title by playing well during the past "championship cycle" (such as it is) and I would have been happier seeing Koneru or Cramling win. Oh well. Such is life. She presumably paid money or cut some deal to be coached for the WWCC and she came through when it counted. Good for her and good for her coach, who's hourly rate will now enjoy a substantial increase. Hou took home $30,000 for her efforts and Kosteniuk earned $60,000 plus a jewel-studded crown that, broken down, is maybe worth a couple grand more. I'd rather the organizers had just turned over the cash, thank you very much. I mean, darlings, who the hell wears a crown these days, except bona fide royalty on special occasions, like going to the Opening of the Opera, or the Death of a Statesman? Awarding a crown is TACKY. But we're dealing with Russians - still stuck back in the 19th century. They haven't quite gotten over the slaughter of the Romanovs by the Bolsheviks. Maybe never will. Round 6
review by GM
Sergey Shipov - first game. Interesting Note: Take
a look at this
table from Chessbase of the top 13 female finishers at the 2006 World
"Juniors" (and Girls) Chess Championships held in Yerevan. Nine of the
thirteen chess femmes on this table played in the 2008 WWCC. As always, you can find more news about women chess players at Chess Femme News at Goddesschess and the Goddesschess blog. Archives
Also, JanXena is experimenting with formatting and content,
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