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 JanXena on Les Echecs des Femmes February, 2008 ¡Hola darlings! Guess what – I didn’t get cancelled! Either enough of you read Echecs des Femmes to keep me around for another month or no one read it at all but Chessville needs to fill up some space and so, here I am – back again! Recent Events
The 15th Salona Tournament was held in Solin, Croatia, December 7 - 15, 2007. Official website. 10 players. The event was won by GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2463) with 6.5/9. Two other chess femmes also played in the event and finished in (6) WGM Natalija Pogonina (RUS 2462) with 4.5 and (7) IM Yelena Dembo (GRE 2448) with 3.5. I just love Stefanova. Not only is she a fine chessplayer, she’s also smart, she’s beautiful and, according to Jen Shahade’s wonderful book look at women in the world of chess, Chess Bitch, she’s fun-loving too. What’s not to love about this lady? I’ve followed her career since I first got online and interested in women’s chess back in the Stone Age (1999). Stefanova, who will turn 30 in April of this year, has had a storied career – see more under Featured Chess Femme below. Corus 2008 at Wijk aan Zee (the Netherlands) was held January 11 - 27, 2008 and, as reported last month, six chess femmes participated in the Groups “A” GM Judit Polgar; “B” GM Koneru Humpy and WGM Hou Yifan; and “C” WGM Anna Ushenina, IM Irina Krush and GM Zhaoqin Peng. The chess femmes had some shining moments, but not enough, alas! Some head-banger games were played, too. I don’t know diddly squat about analyzing a game – my knowledge of tactics and strategy is shallow to (okay, I’ll be honest) – non-existent. But it seems to me that when a game goes on for over 100 moves, it’s because someone is too stubborn to admit that he can’t win, and will finally agree to a draw only when the writing is in neon red 10 foot tall letters on the wall, something that could been agreed to 50 moves before. Here is one of those head-banger games, played between GM Etienne Bacrot (FRA 2700) and GM Koneru Humpy (IND 2612) in Round 8 (“B” Group):
GM Bacrot (FRA 2700) - GM Koneru (IND
2612) 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 d5 5.Bg5 0–0 6.e3 c5 7.cxd5 exd5 8.dxc5 Nbd7 9.Rc1 Nxc5 10.Qd4 Bxc3+ 11.Qxc3 Nce4 12.Bxf6 Nxf6 13.Be2 Bg4 14.0–0 Qb6 15.h3 Rfc8 16.Qd2 Be6 17.Qd4 Nd7 18.Rfd1 h6 19.Qxb6 Nxb6 20.Nd4 Rxc1 21.Rxc1 Rc8 22.Rb1 Nc4 23.g4 Ne5 24.Bb5 a6 25.Ba4 b5 26.Bb3 Nc6 27.Ne2 a5 28.Nf4 g5 29.Nxd5 Bxd5 30.Bxd5 Nb4 31.Bb7 Rc7 32.a3 Rxb7 33.axb4 a4 34.Rc1 Rd7 35.Rc5 Rd2 36.Rxb5 Rxb2 37.Kg2 Kg7 38.Kg3 a3 39.Ra5 a2 40.b5 Rxb5 41.Rxa2 Rb1 42.Ra6 Rg1+ 43.Kh2 Rb1 44.Kg2 Rb4 45.Rd6 Ra4 46.Rd3 Rb4 47.Kg3 Rb1 48.Rd5 Rg1+ 49.Kh2 Ra1 50.Kg2 Rb1 51.h4 gxh4 52.e4 Re1 53.f3 Kg6 54.Rh5 Ra1 55.Rxh4 Ra5 56.Kg3 f6 57.Rh1 Rb5 58.Rd1 Rb3 59.Rd5 Ra3 60.Kf4 Rb3 61.Rc5 Ra3 62.Rc6 Ra5 63.Rd6 Kg7 64.Rd3 Kg6 65.Kg3 Ra4 66.Rd6 Kg7 67.Rd7+ Kg6 68.Kh4 Ra1 69.f4 Rh1+ 70.Kg3 Rg1+ 71.Kf2 Rxg4 72.Kf3 h5 73.f5+ Kg5 74.Rg7+ Kh6 75.Rxg4 hxg4+ 76.Kxg4 Kg7 77.Kg3 Kg8 78.Kg2 Kg7 79.Kf1 Kf7 80.Ke2 Ke7 81.Ke3 Kd7 82.Kd3 Kc7 83.Kc3 Kd7 84.Kb3 Kd6 85.Kc2 Kc7 86.Kd2 Kd8 87.Ke2 Ke8 88.Kf3 Ke7 89.Ke3 Kd7 90.Kd4 Kd6 91.Kc4 Kc6 92.Kb4 Kd6 93.Kc3 Kc7 94.Kc2 Kc8 95.Kb2 Kd7 96.Kb1 Kd6 97.Kc2 Kc7 98.Kd1 Kd8 99.Ke1 Ke8 100.Kf1 Kf8 101.Kg1 Kf7 102.Kg2 Kf8 103.Kg3 Kf7 104.Kf2 Kf8 105.Ke1 Ke8 106.Kd2 Kd8 107.Kc3 Kc7 108.Kb4 Kd6 109.Kc4 Kc6 110.Kd4 Kd6 111.e5+ fxe5+ 112.Ke4 Ke7 113.Kxe5 Kf7 114.Kf4 Kf6 115.Kg4 Kf7 116.Kg5 Kg7 117.f6+ Kf7 118.Kf5 Kf8 119.Kf4 Kf7 120.Ke5 Kf8 121.Ke6 Ke8 122.f7+ Kf8 123.Kf6 Game drawn ½–½ WGM Hou Yifan (CHN 2527) had a nice win in Round 11 behind the black pieces against GM Gabriel Sargissian (ARM 2676). Way to go, defeating a GM rated 149 points above you – and with black! I thought about saying that the almost 14 year old “spanked” the GM, but that would be naughty:
GM Sargissian (2676) - WGM Hou
(2527) 1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.Nf3 b6 4.g3 Ba6 5.Qc2 Bb4+ 6.Bd2 Be7 7.e4 d5 8.cxd5 Bxf1 9.Kxf1 exd5 10.e5 Ne4 11.Nc3 Nxd2+ 12.Nxd2 Qd7 13.Kg2 Nc6 14.Qa4 0–0 15.Rac1 f6 16.f4 fxe5 17.dxe5 Bb4 18.Rhf1 Rac8 19.Ne2 Nxe5 20.Qxb4 Nd3 21.Qb3 Nxc1 22.Nxc1 Rce8 23.Nf3 Qf5 24.Rf2 c5 25.Qd3 Qe4 26.Rd2 d4 27.Qxe4 Rxe4 28.Nd3 Re6 29.h4 Rc8 30.a4 a6 31.Nfe5 b5 32.a5 g6 33.Rc2 c4 34.Nb4 Rf8 35.b3 d3 36.Rd2 Rc8 37.Rd1 Rd6 38.Kf3 d2 39.bxc4 bxc4 40.Nc2 c3 41.Ke2 Rd5 42.Ng4 Rxa5 43.Nge3 Rd8 44.Rb1 Ra2 45.Kd1 Rb2 46.Ra1 Rdb8 47.Rxa6 Rb1+ 48.Ke2 Rc1 49.Rc6 Re8 0–1
Here are the final standings for the women: Group "A": GM Judit Polgar (10th place, 6.0. Winners finished 8.0/13) Aronian shares the win with 17 year old Magnus Carlsen (but actually he was ranked below Aronian.) Group "B":
Hou Yifan (9th place, 6.0) Movsesian clearly outclassed the rest of the B Group, winning with 9.5/13, 1 full point ahead of the next finisher, GM Nigel Short (astonishing - I thought he was all washed up. Just goes to show you, darlings...) A good finish for Hou; I expected more from Koneru, who is a much more seasoned player and had good results over the summer. With only five players rated above her, she should have done better. Group "C":
IM Irina Krush (5th place, 7.0) Caruana won the C Group with an outstanding 10.0/13 and shows he's no flash in the pan. Watch out, Carlsen, he's gunning for you... The Gibtelecom Chess Festival (a/k/a Gibraltar) was held January 22 – 31, 2008 at Gibraltar.
Is it just me, or does it seem a little bit strange to use two monkeys playing chess as an icon for a major international chess tournament? Yes yes, I know all about the monkeys on the Rock, but still… Thirty women participated in the Masters Event (204 players). GM Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2464) (see Featured Chess Femme below) was blazing hot at the start of the Masters Tournament, including this win in Round 4 against GM Tigran L. Petrosian (ARM 2606):
GM Petrosian (2606) - GM Stefanova (2464) 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4 Bxb4 5.c3 Bd6 6.d4 Nf6 7.0-0 0-0 8.Re1 b6 9.Bd5 Nxd5 10.exd5 e4 11.Ng5 Ne7 12.Qh5 h6 13.Nxe4 f5 14.Nxd6 cxd6 15.Ba3 Rf6 16.Nd2 Ba6 17.c4 b5 18.Qe2 Ng6 19.cxb5 Bb7 20.Nc4 Bxd5 21.Nxd6 Nh4 22.Qe5 Bxg2 23.Qg3 Be4 24.Qb3+ Re6 25.Nxe4 fxe4 26.Kh1 Nf3 27.Re3 d5 28.Rxf3 exf3 29.Rg1 Qd7 30.Qxf3 Rae8 31.Bc5 Re1 32.a4 Rxg1+ 33.Kxg1 Re1+ 34.Kg2 Ra1 35.Ba3 Qe6 36.a5 Qg6+ 37.Kh3 Kh7 38.Kh4 Rg1 39.Be7 Qe6 0-1 After Round 5, Stefanova was in 3rd place overall; after a draw in Round 6, she was in 6th place. Unfortunately, Stefanova wasn’t able to maintain her initial torrid pace, faced with increasingly higher rated opponents and, with several other women charging hard on her heels for the top women’s prize of £5,000, she finished in 4th place on the women’s list and 33rd place overall. Still, her performance rating was 2690, a reflection of the tough competition she played in the early rounds (much tougher than the other women faced). Way to go, Eti!
(Photos: Cmilyte, Stefanova, Harika, and Arakhamia-Grant, from 2008 Gibtelecom Chess Festival website, © John Saunders) Stefanova won her final game to finish with 6.5/9, along with Viktorija Cmilyte, Harika Dronavalli and Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant. The top four women split a total purse of £9,000 (about $18,000 USD) among them. I’ll be writing more about Harika next month. The final standings for the women (last column is the performance rating):
21 IM Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 6.5 GEO 2457
2422 Upcoming Events
Here are the top 10 rated chess femmes playing in the “C” Tournament:
1.
WGM Anna Ushenina, Anna (UKR 2484) The 24th Cappelle la Grande International Tournament will be held February 16 – 23, 2008. Of the 247 invited players, 55 are chess femmes (I hope I didn’t miss any on the list) – here are the top 10 women:
1.
IM Elina
Danielian (2480) Anna Rudolf (HUN 2293) is one of the invitees. Will Latvian player Ilmars Starostits follow through on his threat to once again accuse Rudolf of cheating by receiving moves via her tube of lip balm? (see In the News below). In the News Has anyone not read about the cheating accusations made against Anna Rudolf? Once upon a time, a shocking story was reported at Chessdom on January 6, 2008. Little Red Rudolf was accused of cheating by three little male chauvenist piggies from Latvia (GM Vladimir Lazarev, IM Ilmars Starostits and IM Oleg Krivonosov) while playing in the Vandoeuvre Open (109 players). All started out just like a fairy tale for Little Red Rudolf. She was playing well (not surprising, since she’s been playing competitive chess for 15 of her 22 years and has had some very good results). Rudolf earned both IM and WGM norms for her play at Vandoeuvre. However, intrigue, jealousy and bitterness were lurking in the wings. It seems that, somehow, Little Red Rudolf was allegedly receiving transmissions of chess moves through her container of lip gloss. Ah, the wonders of modern technology… Darlings, I couldn’t make this up if I tried! High drama ensued when Latvian player Ilmars Starostits, one of the three little male chauvinist piggies accusing Little Red Rudolf of cheating, refused to shake hands with her in the final game (Round 9) and demanded that the arbiter take further actions to prevent Little Red Rudolf from carrying out her evil cheating scheme. At the time, Rudolf was leading the tournament by half a point. Alas, poor Little Red Rudolf was so shocked and appalled by this behavior and the accusations (which she had evidently not known about or been informed about before) - she lost the game (albeit hard fought), thereby ensuring that Starostits finished in 3rd place with 6.5 (in the money) and Lazarev, the initiator of the cheating accusation, finished in second (in the money). Rudolf finished the tournament in 9th place with 6.0. The highest rated player at the tournament, GM Christian Bauer (who lost his game to Little Red Rudolf), gave an interview to Chessdom and expressed his belief that Little Red had not cheated, and explained why. The Chief Arbiter at the event expressed his opinion that Little Red had not cheated, and explained why. The three little male chauvinist piggies have evidently threatened to make cheating accusations against Rudolf at the Cappelle-la-Grande Open (February 16 – 23, 2008). Little Red’s Federation filed a formal complaint with FIDE. In true AS THE PAWN TURNS style, the chess hommes, meanwhile, presented their own little “no shakee no playee” at no less august event than 2008 Corus! Yes – gasp – it’s true! GM Nigel Short (not to be confused with Nigel Barker, famed photographer and resident straight-man hunk on television show “America’s Next Top Model”) offered to shake hands twice with GM “I’m Not A Baby, Noooooo” Ivan Cheparinov, who studiously ignored the proffered appendage. Perhaps he doesn’t like short fingernails (ha ha, pun pun). Short protested this crude behavior to the arbiter. Lots of interesting stuff ensued – including a stink bomb threat (only kidding, darlings, har!) BUT - since THAT incident involved only male players at a marquee event, I’m sure you’ve all read about it, it was covered everywhere, so I won’t bore you with the gory details. Little Red Rudolf’s story attracted the attention of The New York Times and was reported in chess aficionado Dylan McClain’s column on January 13, 2008. The question now is - what will FIDE do about the ghastly treatment Little Red Rudolf received at the hands of the three little male chauvinist piggies? (Write your own ending to the story here…) There is other news! WFM Elizabeth (Liz) Vicary (USA 215 ) has a blog (got to love the name – Lizzie Knows All) – a must read if you appreciate intelligent and witty writing. Biting writing, actually – don’t read if you’re not good around sharp edges, darlings. Delicious! Speaking of Liz Vicary, Chess Life Online is running a contest for best “CLO” article of 2007, and Liz’s excellent article “Girls, Chess and Genius.” Liz’s article was running #5 on the list as of this writing; – and not just because it’s written by a beautiful, erudite redhead (no, sillies, not me – Liz!) And speaking of Liz Vicary again, she was the “victim” of an absolutely horrid article caption at the New York Post – something about beating her chess students? But the content proves otherwise – read it and see, darlings! Is any publicity for chess good publicity? Not when it involves a maniac waving a gun around. Geez Louise! And – speaking again of Liz Vicary, I sure hope she will be playing in the 2008 U.S. Women’s Chess Championship. Not much info has been released yet on this event. According to the February, 2008 print edition of Chess Life (p. 54), the Women’s Championship will take place at the same time as the Men’s (er, ahem, the “U.S. Championship”) event, May 13 – 21, 2008 in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and will feature a 10 player round-robin. Liz played in the 2007 U.S. Women’s Championship and didn’t do so well in the final standings, but she did win the Goddesschess Brilliancy Prize of $300. Stay tuned for further news. According to the Chess Life article, the final announcement of the players will be made in April on Chess Life Online.
As always, you can find more news about women chess players at Chess Femme News at Goddesschess and the Goddesschess blog.
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(Photo:
The Week in Chess © Mark Weeks) GM Judit Polgar, who is usually well
dressed, committed a big fashion faux pas during the tournament – at least
TWICE! Yes darlings, it’s true! Not only did she wear this horrid looking
fur thingy with BALLS dangling hither and yon about her shoulders during her
game with white against Topolov in Round 3 (a draw, but she should have
won), she also wore it in Round 7 when she lost behind white to Vishy Anand.
The pundits are saying that Polgar had a sub-par performance. Helllooooo!
Need I say more? That fur piece is CURSED, I tell you, CURSED. She should
put a stake through its heart and bury it. (I sure hope it wasn’t a present
from her husband.)
(Photo:
IM Irina Krush © Fred Lucas). In the “C” Group IM Irina Krush separated
herself from the other women by 2.5 points. She defeated eventual “C” Group
winner Caruna in Round 6 (play through game at
GM
Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL 2463)
