Alexandra Kosteniuk winner of Nalchik

Alexandra Kosteniuk…Queen of chess!  Images : Kosteniuk.com..please click for a larger view

Alexandra and her baby-girl

Images: chesspics.com

News Article…11th January 2009..the link will open in a new window.

http://www.miamiherald.com/277/story/847451.html

It’s not Christmas yet! But maybe an early Christmas present for Alexandra with the World Women’s Chess Championship’s final starting this coming Sunday between Alexandra and 14 year-old Hou Yifan of China! Saturday 13 Sept is a free day. The finals start on Sunday…see schedule:

Please click HERE to play through the games of Alexandra Kosteniuk and Hou Yifan’s games in round 5. The link will open in a new window.
Please click here for the Official site that will open in a new separate window.

Schedule — all games start at 15.00 (GMT +3)
Sunday  14  September  Round 6, game 1, Yifan vs Kosteniuk–0-1
Monday  15  September  Round 6, game 2, Kosteniuk vs Yifan–1/2
Tuesday  16  September  Round 6, game 3, Yifan vs Kosteniuk–1/2
Wednesday  17  September  Round 6, game 4, Kosteniuk vs Yifan–1/2
Thursday  18  September  Tiebreaks/Closing Ceremony 

So the Women’s World Chess Championship Final will be between 24 year-old Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and 14 year-old Hou Yifan of China (pictured).

Image: chess.com

Hou Yifan earned her place in the final the hard way by beating favourite Humpy Koneru of India in a blitz tie-break playoff.

Yifan won the first rapid game only to be pagged back by Koneru in the second. Yifan again took the lead by winning the first blitz game and this time Koneru failed to stage another comeback and was finally eliminated.

So it’s Russia versus China in a 4-game final for the World Chess Championship. In the red corner it’s GM Alexandra Kosteniuk – a former Women’s World Championship finalist from 7 years ago, she’s now practically a veteran compared to her opponent. In the errr…other red corner , a full 10 years younger, is Hou Yifan who has also qualified as a GM and is a remarkable chess phenomenon.

Saturday is a rest day, so the final starts on 14 Sept (Sunday) and finishes on 17 Sept (Wednesday). If the scores are level there will be tiebreaks on the 18 Sept to determine the winner.

So what story will be written? Is it to be the tale of Kosteniuk returning after many years to go one better and finally win the title she covets? Or is to be Hou Yifan, a world champion at just 14 years of age?

Source: and games —http://www.chess.com/news/yifan-defeats-koneru-in-semi-finals

Image: Official Site

Image: Official Site

Yifan vs Kosteniuk round 6 game 1 move 40

Yifan vs Kosteniuk round 6 game 1 final position…0-1

Round 6 Game 2

Round 6 Game 2…images from the Official site

Kosteniuk vs Yifan round 6 game 2 move 40

Kosteniuk vs Yifan round 6 game 2 final position –1/2

Yifan vs Kosteniuk round 6 game 3 move 40

Yifan vs Kosteniuk round 6 game 3 final position…1/2

Kosteniuk Round 6 game 3

Yifan round 6 game 3

Kosteniuk vs Yifan round 6 game 4 move 40

Kosteniuk vs Yifan round 6 game 4 final position…1/2

Round 6 game 4

Nalchik

http://www.kosteniuk.com/podcast/

I am Alexandra Kosteniuk, an International Woman Grandmaster (WGM) –1998– and an International Master among men (IM) –2000–. During the FIDE Congress in Calvia –2004–I was awarded the title of Grandmaster (Men), thus I became 10th woman in the whole history of chess who got this title. I am the Women’s Vice Champion of the World, a title I got at the World Championships in Moscow in December 2001. I am the European Champion 2004 and Russian Champion 2005.
I was born in the Russian city of Perm on April 23, 1984. I have been living in Moscow since I was one year old. I graduated from the Russian State Academy of Physical Education in July 2003 and am now a certified professional chess trainer. It’s my dad, Konstantin Vladimirovich – who taught me to play chess when I was 5 years old and I am very grateful to him for that.
I improved in chess rapidly. My first great achievements came in Junior tournaments. In 1994 I became the European Champion among girls under the age of 10, and a month later shared first and second places at the World Championship under the age of 10. Later, I had the same major achievements in other age categories, for example I became World Champion of girls under 12, in 1996.
In 1997, I became a Woman International Master (WIM) at the age of 13, they say that I reached this mark slightly quicker than Maya Chiburdanidze, but I don’t give much significance to that. I scored all necessary WGM norms in February of 1998 that is at the age of 13 years and 10 months but the GrandMaster title was officially given to me in November 1998 at the 33rd World Olympiad in Kalmykia.
My current ELO rating as of July 1, 2005 is 2516, which makes me now the fifth strongest woman in the world. My official rating in the USCF Rating list of August 2005 is 2565 and so I am the highest rated woman on the USCF Rating List at this moment.
I also have many other interests but chess, I write poems (some of them are published in my book), and I like sport in all its forms. I also love to do fashion modelling, and I even played a part in a movie, which by far was the most fun thing I have ever done in my life.
My first book How I became Grandmaster at age 14 has been published already in three languages (Russian, English and Spanish). My dad and I have worked on it for almost two years, and I feel that its genre is very original. It is a manual in which I teach to play chess and at the same time I tell how I learned to play chess starting from the age of 5. The book contains many annotated games and pictures, including color ones. I hope that it won’t disappoint you. I think that many parents could purchase it as a present for their children. Perhaps not everyone who reads it will become a Grandmaster at the age of 14, but many readers will learn to play this most intelligent and most beautiful game in the world.

Source: http://www.kosteniuk.com/about/eng/about.php

On this link on my blog you can see a video of her where she commented on her blitz game.https://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/05/16/chess-queen/

Anzel Solomons…right…from South Africa, round 1 board 1

Anzel Solomons – from SA

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Chess Queen Alexandra

Click on the images for a larger view.

Please click HERE to play through chess games of Alexandra. The link will open in a new window.

10 January 2009: News article about Alexandra…the link will open in a new window.

http://www.miamiherald.com/277/story/847451.html

On this link on my blog, http://chessaleeinlondon.wordpress.com/2008/09/12/alexandra-kosteniuk-winner-of-nalchik/ you can follow the games played in the  World Women’s Chess Championships in  between Kosteniuk and Yifan. There’s also more pictures of her to see.

Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the beauties in the world of Chess! In this video you can see the game she played against GM Zoltan Almasi. It’s a blitz. Fast chess, also known as, blitz chess, lightning chess, bullet chess and rapid chess, is a type of chess game in which each side is given less time to make their moves than under the normal tournament time controls of 60-150 minutes (1-2½ hours) per player.
Read HERE more about blitz chess.

Please click HERE for the official site of Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Alexandra Kosteniuk comments in detail her blitz game played in Moscow at the World Blitz Championships Qualifiers against one of the world’s top experts on the Berlin Wall defence.
 

Image…NYtimes

The model Carmen Kass in a five-minute blitz match against Viswanathan Anand in 2004.

Image:chessbase


Read the review of this book here at the link at the bottom of this post….or click on the image to order the book.

Many of us, even those of us who don’t play either well or often, are familiar with chess. Some of us will be aware that some pieces are differently represented in different parts of the world, but I wonder how many of us are aware of the comparatively recent introduction of the queen?

Marilyn Yalom attempts three objectives in this interesting book. Firstly, and of most interest to me, she outlines a history of the game of chess and its likely spread across the world. Secondly, Dr Yalom explains the development of the piece currently known as the queen in most European chess play both in terms of its replacement of earlier pieces, and its emerging power. Finally, Dr Yalom makes a case for parallels between the emergence of the power of the chess queen and the rise of powerful female sovereigns in Europe.

While I am attracted to the notion of the role of the chess queen as a reflection of the rise of strong queens (such as Isabella of Castile), and a possible association with the cult of the Virgin Mary, this is of peripheral interest to me. What I did find fascinating was the history of the development of the game, especially the differences between cultures and countries. Dr Yalom advises that the chess queen did not appear on the board until about 1000: some 200 years after the game had been introduced to southern Europe. Yet, by 1497, the queen had developed from a weak piece (moving one square at a time on the diagonal) to the more formidable force that she is today.

Dr Yalom presents a wealth of information in this book. Whether you share her conclusions, her enthusiasm for the subject combined with her capacity to present a variety of interesting data in a readable and accessible way will make this an enjoyable read.

Those who are serious chess players may find some of the facts interesting. Those of us interested in the evolution of institutions of power and who choose to explore parallels between games of strategy and political realities should also enjoy this book.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0060090650/ref=cm_rdp_product

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