Chessville News - Les Echecs des Femmes - by JanXena - The Women in Chess, and the Chess in Women

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JanXena on

Les Echecs
des Femmes

September, 2008

As The Worm Turns...

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov sucks

He caved to the Russian Chess Federation by refusing to move the Women's World Chess Championship from Nalchik, a scant 60 miles from a war zone, and invoked "we are all one big family" as a mantra. Gag me. I wonder how much he was paid for THAT? Meanwhile, Xena, totally incensed about these developments and muttering dire threats under her breath aimed at Fearless Leader Kirsan, went galloping off on Horsey and intends to haunt the environs around Nalchik to protect the chess femmes who did show up (20% of the players did not). The Russians are not so good at rounding up and jailing the criminal gangs freely roaming in Nalchik and environs who enjoy smuggling, raping, kidnapping tourists for ransom, killing the occasional bureaucrat, torching a business every now and then for refusing to pay protection money, you know, just some Russian good ol' boys out having some fun.

Recent Events

There were LOTS of events in July and August in which chess femmes took part. Here are just a few.

Politiken Cup
July 20 - 27, 2008
Here are the final standings (280 players). GM Sergey Tiviakov (NED 2645) won with 8.0/10. Here are the chess femmes who played and their final standings:
(21) IM Viktorija Cmilyte (LTU 2508), 7.0; (30) IM Tania Sachdev (IND 2432), 6.5; (34) IM Monika Socko (POL 2473), 6.5; (71) WIM Ilena Krasenkova (RUS 2171), 6.0; (93) WFM Evgenia Pavlovskaia (SWE 2210), 5.5; (94) Dara Sevkan Akdag (Denmark 2171), 5.5; (98) WIM Olena Dvoretsja (UKR 2156), 5.5; (136) WIM Christin Andersson (SWE 2144), 5.0; (261) Orla E. Jørgensen (Denmark 1678), 3.0. (This photo of Cmilyte is from the 2008 FiNet Chess960 Women's Rapid World Championship held as part of the Mainz Chess Classic.) Cmilyte, Sachdev and Socko are all playing in the Women's World Chess Championship.

British Chess Championships
July 27 - August 9, 2008
British Lady Champion: IM Jovanka Houska (ENG 2405) (photo, right)
English Lady Champion: Jovanka Houska
Under 18 Girl: Sheila Dines (Surrey)
Under 16 Girl: Lateefah Messam-Sparks (West Nottingham)
Under 15 Girl: Sheila Dines (Surrey)
Under 14 Girl’s: Astghik Stepanyan (Sutton Coldfield)
Under 13 Girl’s: Jennifer Ehr (Barnet Knights), Ali Roy (Scotland)
Under 12 Girl: Radha Jain (Pinner)
Under 11 Girl: Megan Cleeves (Thamesdown)
Under 10 Girl’s: Katherine Shepherd (Ashtead)
Under 8 Girl: Rebecca Swetsun (Essex)
In the British Championship (11 rounds, 68 players) here are the other chess femmes who played and their final standings: (34) IM Susan Lalic (ENG 2344) 5.0; (42) WFM Meri Grigoryan-Lyell (ENG 2053), 5.0.

2008 World Junior Chess Championships
August 2 - 16, 2008
Report from Chessdom. (Photo: WGM Vera Nebolsina (RUS 2350), was back in 2008 to defend her World Junior's title won last year. She looks about 10 years old. I feel old, very old...) WGM Hou Yifan (CHN 2557) played in the "Juniors" (boys) section and a large number of up-and-coming chess femmes played in the Girls section. As I understand it, all players have to be under 20 when the tournament starts, but they can be 40 or older by the time it finishes, or something like that. Rather like the rules governing the age of China's "women" gymnasts...

USA's own Tatev Abrahamyan, the winner of the 2008 Goddesschess "Fighting Chess" Award at the 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Championship, was perfect through the first four games, and defended her first place position in Round 5 against highest rank Harika Dronavalli (one of my favorite players) with a draw!

Realty struck in Round 6. Mariya Muzychuk scored an important victory against the previous leader Tatev Abrahamyan to take the lead shared with Dronavalli. Dronavalli won against Dauletova while Guliskan Nakhbayeva grounded down Mary Ann Gomes (a Featured Chess Femme). All three winners on the top three boards then shared first place with 5 points. (Report from Official website). Abrahamyan was at 4 1/2. She did not rebound during the second half of the tournament, but Narmin Kazimova came on strong, moving into the top 10. You'll remember Narmin from her performance at the European Individual Chess Championships (Women's) earlier this year. She was the Featured Chess Femme in May, 2008.

Dronavalli ran away with the Girl's Junior section, finishing 1.5 points ahead of everyone else with 10.5/13.

Here are the final standings for the top 15 players:
1 IM HARIKA Dronavalli 2461 IND 10½
2 WGM MUZYCHUK Mariya 2413 UKR 9
3 WFM OZTURK Kubra 2188 TUR 9
4 WIM GOMES Mary Ann 2316 IND 9
5 WFM PAIKIDZE Nazi 2277 GEO 9
6 WIM MIKADZE Miranda 2258 GEO 8½
7 WGM MAMEDJAROVA Turkan 2284 AZE 8½
8 WGM NEMCOVA Katerina 2372 CZE 8½
9 KAZIMOVA Narmin 2148 AZE 8½
10 WFM BODNARUK Anastasia 2394 RUS 8½
11 WIM SOUMYA Swaminathan 2293 IND 8
12 WFM SEVERIUKHINA Zoja 2300 RUS 8
13 WIM NADIG Kruttika 2241 IND 8
14 WFM NAKHBAYEVA Guliskhan 2170 KAZ 7½
15 WFM Tatev Abrahamyan 2277 USA 7½

GM Norm:
WGM Hou Yifan CHN 2561. Hou finished in 6th place in the Juniors with 9.0/13 and earned her second GM norm.

WGM Norm:
Kübra Öztürk TUR 2413
Miranda Mikadze GEO 2410

WIM Norm:
Preethi Rajkumar IND 2277
Sarah Hoolt GER 2283
Khayala Isgandarova AZE 2254
Zusana Borosova SVK 2256
Narmin Kazimova AZE 2321
Anastasia Bodnaruk RUS 2294
Zoja Severiukhina RUS 2296
Guliskan Nakhbayeva KAZ 2297
Tatev Abrahamyan USA 2266
Adriana Nikolova BUL 2269
Nafisa Muminova UZB 2261
Homa Hour Alavi IRI 2266
Sona Pertlova CZE 2256

10th French Women's Championship
August 11 - 23, 2008
(French Chess Federation Website)

Here is the final cross-table. Congratulations to Sophie Milliet for an excellent tournament, not losing a game. (Photo: Sophie Milliet, R9, (c) www.europe-echecs.com).

Current Events:

2008 Women's World Chess Championship
August 28 - September 18, 2008
Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia

I've made my opinions about this championship known at the Goddesschess blog and Chess Femme News and I don't pull my punches. If you are interested in reading the background and the absolutely idiotic statements issued by Fearless Leader Kirsan, the Russian President of the European Chess Union and the Russian organizers in Nalchik, I've got them here and here. To cut to the chase, six Georgian chess players decided to sit out this Championship for fear of their personal safety:

GM Maya Chiburdanidze (2489), Women's World Chess Champion 1978 - 1991, #18 on FIDE Women's Top 100 List
Lela Javakhishvili (2461) (photo, right), #31 Women's Top 100
Maia Lomineishvili (2414), #55 Women's Top 100
Nino Khurtsidze (2413), #57 Women's Top 100
Sopiko Khukhashvili (2408), #62 Women's Top 100
Sopio Gvetadze (2355) (didn't make top 100 cut - which is currently at 2357)

These five players also did not appear in Nalchik:

Karen Zapata (PER 2180)
Marie Sebag (FRA 2529), #7 Women's Top 100
Irina Krush (USA 2470), #24 Women's Top 100
Tea Bosboom Lanchava (NED 2358), #99 Women's Top 100
Ekaterina Korbut (RUS 2459), #35 Women's Top 100

Krush, Sebag and Bosboom-Lanchava all signed a letter of support for the Georgian chess players' request to move the WWCC from Nalchik. I don't know why Zapata and Korbut did not appear.

As I mentioned in the introduction, these 11 players represent approximately 20% of the 64 players who qualified for the WWCC. Regardless of what kind of spin FIDE and the Nalchik organizers put on this, that's a large chunk of players. In addition, nine of the eleven are on the FIDE Top 100 Women List with Sebag at #7 in the world.

Instead of re-setting the pairings (FIDE had prior notice that these players were not going to appear), the original pairings were maintained and in Round 1 players were made to sit at empty chessboards waiting for opponents who weren't going to show up. In some cases, this skewed the results and some players who, in my opinion, would not have otherwise made it if they had played their scheduled opponents, passed through to the second round without playing a single game:

Anna Gasic, POL 2211, who was scheduled to play against GM Elect Marie Sebag (FRA 2529)
Nguyen, Thi Thanh An VIE 2323, who was scheduled to play against GM Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO 2489)
Sedina, Elena ITA 2344, who was scheduled to play against IM Irina Krush (USA 2470)
Amura, Claudia ARG 2345, who was scheduled to play against IM Lela Javakhishvili (GEO 2461)

This was not fair to the other players who had to play both games of Round 1 and, in some cases, several tense play-off games. Bad form, FIDE and organizers. Bad form.

Here are the results from the R1 play-offs:

Name

Rtng

Rp1

Rp2

Bz1

Bz2

Total

Advances

UKR	Zhukova, Natalia	2489	0	1	½	0				1.5
USA	Rohonyan, Katerine	2321	1	0	½	1				2.5	Rohonyan

ARM	Mkrtchian, Lilit	2436	½	½	½	½	½	1		3.5	Mkrtchian
AUT	Moser, Eva	2383	½	½	½	½	½	0		2.5

SRB	Bojkovic, Natasa	2423	½		½	0				1.5
CHN	Ju, Wenjun	2389	½	½	½	1				2.5	Ju

AZE	Kadimova, Ilaha	2324	1	0	0	1	0		0	3
GER	Paehtz, Elisabeth	2481	0	1	1	0	1	0	1	4	Paehtz

ROM	Foisor, Sabina-Francesca	2337	½	½	1	0	1	0	½	3.5
POL	Socko, Monika	2473	½	½	0	1	0	1	½	3.5

Socko/Foisor were tied after five play-off games! It came down to the dreaded Armageddon game - winner of a draw got to pick white with six minutes or black with five minutes and draw odds. Socko won the draw and chose white, and the game was on. The players banged out moves and pieces were flying - moves were not being recorded. All of a sudden, Foisor's flag fell and she lost on time! But wait - Foisor said she had asked an arbiter to declare a draw based on the material on the board - 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, and a tense hour ensued as the Appeals Committee met and made a decision:

Article 9.6 states that, quote "The game is drawn when a position is reached from which a checkmate cannot occur by any possible series of legal moves, even with the most unskilled play. This immediately ends the game, provided that the move producing this position is legal."

In her protest, Ms Monika Socko contended that she had won the game based on the fact that the flag of her opponent had fallen.

Having considered the arguments presented by the player in her protest and the decision of the Chief Arbiter, the Appeals Committee has decided that indeed based on the provisions of Article 9.6, playing in a most unskilled manner can result in the position indicated by the Chief Arbiter which can lead to a checkmate.

Therefore, the Appeals Committee has decided that the game is a win for white.

I have a question. After Foisor requested a draw ruling from an arbiter, why did he not stop the players' clocks while a decision was pending???

So, after the end of Round 1 officially, from 53 players, 30 passed through to Round 2 which is played today, September 1, 2008 (while I'm writing this column, actually). According to Chessdom:

Pairings for Round 2, Game 1 of the World Women Chess Championship:

Mateeva - Xu Yuhua
Mongontuul - Yifan Hou
Stefanova - Ju
Tan Zhongyi - Pia Cramling
Anna Gasik - Mkrtchian
Shen Yang - Zhao Xue
T. Kosintseva - Anna Zatonskih
Cmylite - N. Kosintseva
Harika - Muzychuk
Ruan Lufei - Claudia Amura
Gaponenko - Rohonyan
Nguyen - Elena Sedina
Socko - Hoang Thanh
Paehtz - Ushenina
Humpy Koneru and Alexandra Kosteniuk advance directly to round 3 as they were paired against Georgians.

Wait a second - did I read that right? Koneru and Kosteniuk get a pass directly to Round 3? THE GEORGIANS AREN'T COMING. Why didn't the organizers/FIDE re-draw the match-ups to account for the 30 players who ARE in Round 2? Why aren't Koneru and Kosteniuk playing against each other (that's a game I'd like to see)? This is RIDICULOUS!

Along the way, the organizers have trotted out the usual quotes from some of the players who are there - and all of them are saying that the strongest players showed up (what else would anyone expect them to say?) and it's too bad the others didn't - the implication being that the players who declined to appear were too chicken to attend because they thought the players who did show up would kick their butts. What a frigging joke! The Georgians aren't afraid of any female player (or most male players) on the planet, and neither are Irina Krush, Marie Sebag and Ekaterina Korbut.

Many weaker players did show up though, in many instances much weaker than those who chose safety over cash. But a pitiful cash take it is. Round 1 losers take home $3,750 - minus FIDE's 20% cut - that nets $3,000. Round 2 losers take home $5,000 minus the 20% cut - that nets $4,000. Whoop de doo - not even enough to reimburse expenses in many cases. Such is the state of purses for exclusively female events that even the best chess femmes think this is good money - worthy of risking one's neck for. Meanwhile, six top chess dudes are battling for 400,000 Euros in a NOT CHAMPIONSHIP tournament in beautiful, safe, secure and peaceful Bilbao - let's see, a Euro is worth about $1.50 these days so that makes it about $600,000 USD - minus FIDE's 20% take of $120,000, of course. Hmmmm.....

Chessdom is providing blog-by-minute coverage that is regularly updated, much more reliable than trying to log on to the official website (which didn't work the last time I tried it, probably overloaded with people trying to view the games live). Susan Polgar's blog is also following the action and I am giving things my usual in-depth coverage and commentary at Chess Femme News while managing not to analyze a single game :)

Here are the results from Round 2, Game 1 (fresh from Susan Polgar's blog):

Matveeva, Svetlana - Xu Yuhua 0-1 (upset)
Mongontuul, Bathuyag - Hou Yifan 0-1
Stefanova, Antoaneta - Ju Wenjun 1/2 (unexpected)
Tan Zhongyi - Cramling, Pia 1/2 (unexpected)
Paehtz, Elisabeth - Ushenina, Anna 0-1
Socko, Monika - Hoang Thanh Trang 1/2
Nguyen Thi Thanh An - Sedina, Elena 1/2 (unexpected)
Gaponenko, Inna - Rohonyan, Katerina 1-0
Ruan Lufei - Amura, Claudia 1/2 (unexpected)
Harika, Dronavalli - Muzychuk, Anna 1/2
Cmilyte, Viktorija - Kosintseva, Nadezhda 1/2
Kosintseva, Tatiana - Zatonskih, Anna 1-0
Shen Yang - Zhao Xue 1-0
Gasik, Anna - Mkrtchian, Lilit 1/2 (unexpected)

In the News

August 4, 2008, India Press Information Bureau: 42 Sportspersons & Coaches Honoured with Special Cash Awards.
Dr. M.S. Gill, Minister of State for Youth Affairs & Sports gave away Special Cash Awards to 42 Sportspersons and Coaches for winning medals in the International Sports Events held during the year 2006. Among the awardees ... Mr. Koneru Ashok [father of GM Koneru Humpy and her coach], Chess Coach received a cheque of Rs. 5 lakh ... [and] Ms. [IM] Tania Sachdev got Rs. 3 lakh.

August 15, 2008, from the Hindu.com/sports: Sharath, Humpy to receive award. CHENNAI: The Raja-Lakshmi award for the year 2008 will be presented to table tennis player Sharath Kamal and chess player Koneru Humpy on November 19 in the city, a release from the Sri Raja-Lakshmi Foundation said. The award carries prize money of Rs. 1 lakh, a citation and a memento. The awardees will also receive the Dr. K.V. Rao and Dr. Jyoti Rao award of $2,000 in association with the Telugu Fine Arts Society, New Jersey.

August 22, 2008, from Express News Service: Pune girl becomes state’s third woman Grandmaster. Pune, August 21 City-based Soumya Swaminathan became the country's 11th woman Grandmaster when she made her third and final WGM norm at the Benasque Open Chess tournament at Spain last month. Soumya scored 6.5 points out of 10 rounds and was also judged the best woman player of the tournament. She is also the third WGM from Maharashtra and also from Pune, behind Swati Ghate-Teli and Eesha Karavade.

August 30, 2008, report from Susan Polgar's blog from Chessdom.com: GM Judit Polgar to play on Hungarian Men's Chess Olympiad Team with Peter Leko and some other chess dudes I've never heard of. Meanwhile, WGM Anna Rudolf (a/k/a Little Red Riding Hood) won a play-off to take top spot in the Hungarian Women's Chess Championship, thereby earning herself a coveted spot on the Hungarian Women's Olympiad Team.

August 31, 2008: GM Susan Polgar will be one of four commentators (along with Boris Spassky, Francisco Vallejo and Leontxo Garcia) at the Grand Slam Final, Bilbao starting September 1, 2008 and featuring Viswanathan Anand, Vassily Ivanchuk, Magnus Carlsen, Veselin Topalov, Levon Aronian and Teimour Radjabov battling for E400,000.

Featured Chess Femme

GM Susan Polgar (USA 2597)

Last month I featured Judit Polgar, this month Susan Polgar. It's a no brainer actually. Who better than to write about one of the famous Polgar sisters, who have done so much to put female chessplayers into the consciousness of a world so geared toward ignoring the female half.

As the oldest of the famous trio of chessplaying sisters from Hungary, Susan led the way, both for her sisters and for women of her generation. I think she broke more barriers and glass ceilings than NASA did for sound and the Harvard School of Business did for female CEOs :) Polgar has an impeccable chess resume and so much has been written about her, I'm not going to bother to recap it here. Suffice to say that I greatly admire this woman who has made so many "firsts" in chess history you can't count them on one hand.

She hasn't played in a rated event recently. When she did take the time to commit to an event and train, she helped bring home a silver medal for the USA on the Women's Team at the 2004 Chess Olympiad - the first medal of any kind for a US Women's Olympiad team. She also earned an individual Gold medal in that event - I sure hope she's got her bling trophy case properly insured, there are so many gold medals sitting in it now! In 2006, proving her form, she won a sponsored event in Dresden, Germany, the Women's Chess Cup (held in conjunction with the World Cup soccer event held there) featuring some of the strongest female chess players in the world and several up-and-comers (several of whom are currently competing in the 2008 Women's World Chess Championship). SP also won the 2006 U.S. Open Blitz Championship.

Now that she's busy running the Susan Polgar Institute of Chess Excellence at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas, or SPICE, as it's called, her tournament days are probably over, but her involvement with and commitment to promoting chess is not, and the special fervor she brought to her OTB play continues unabated in her activities in the United States and, indeed, around the world.

Along the way, Polgar has attracted legions of admirers and hordes of naysayers who seem to have taken her success as a chessplayer and businesswoman very personally, very negatively. Many have tried - and failed - to bring this lady down, often using the dirtiest and lowest of tactics, personal attacks, filthy smears and outright lies about the woman, her marriages (past and present), her career, her children. Personally, I think she is one tough-minded woman who has, throughout it all, maintained her sense of equilibrium and decorum, making her own unique way through great trials. She has earned all of the kudos showered upon her; I wish she was running the U.S. Department of Defense at the moment. Well, be that as it may, Polgar IS running SPICE, and in 2008 she has brought together a collection of chess players for the Second SPICE Cup Invitational that will be the strongest 10-player round-robin event ever held in the United States. This - within two years of the founding of SPICE. In addition, this year, SPICE, the Susan Polgar Foundation and other sponsors are also holding in conjunction with the SPICE Cup a plethora of events in Lubbock for players of every age and level, including a Women's Open.

She is a tireless promoter of scholastic chess; she is a member of the Executive Board of the United States Chess Federation who was overwhelmingly elected for her avowed platform of reform - now embattled, slandered and reviled by the enemies of change at every turn; she is a wife; she is a devoted mother of two sons; she is a tireless educator and advocate for chess and for females of all ages involved in chess. She continues her professional involvement with chess as a speaker, sponsor and commentator at events in the United States and around the world. Right now she is in Bilbao as a live commentator at what is being billed at the highest-rated tournament of all time. She'll be in Dresden at the Chess Olympiads later this year.

She has accomplished so much within her lifetime while engaging in a never-ending battle against those who seek to tear her down. And yet, she only just turned 39 this year (in April). What's she going to do as an encore during the second half of her life? I have no idea, but I expect it will be bigger and better than ever, for the betterment of chess and females around the world. I chose the photo of SP above, at Madison Square Garden, 2007, from her blog, showing her relaxed and just enjoying herself outside a chess venue. She is as beautiful in this photo as in any I've ever seen of her.

Susan Polgar is a champion for the ages.

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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"Xena" (a/k/a Jan Newton) is one of the principals at Goddesschess, a popular "niche" website since its debut in 1999. Goddesschess publishes articles from authors around the world as well as producing and publishing the principals' own work. In addition to promoting views about the goddess side of chess, Goddesschess publishes news and articles of general interest about board games, research concerning the development and history of board games and archaeological discoveries related to board games. Jan also regularly publishes women's chess news at Chess Femme News. Enjoy!