Chess Femme News
News About Women in Chess

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August, 2008
(scroll down for most current news)
August 1 - 14, 2008
August 15, 2008
August 24, 2008

August 24, 2008:

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).  


Milliet, Sophie french championships 2008.jpg (43596 bytes)

 

 

 

 

 

 

August 29, 2008:

Women's World Chess Championship
August 28 - September 19, 2008
Nalchik, Kabardino-Balkaria, Russia

I updated my coverage on the WWCC special pages.  

I misssed this announcement at the French Chess Federation's website - it appears, however, to be undated!  Argggh.  Despite four years of high school French I can hardly read a word, so I did the translation of this announcement using the Babelfish translator at Altavista.com.  I give the French and English translation side by side.  So, now we know why GM elect Marie Sebag did not appear at the WWCC.  Personally, I approve her decision 100%.  Good for Marie Sebag!

Entre raison et passion, Marie a dű faire un choix difficile mais logique. 

Rappelons que ce championnat doit se dérouler du 28 aout au 18 septembre ŕ Nalchik, capitale du Kabardino-Balkarie, république autonome de la Fédération Russe et frontaličre avec l'Ossétie du Nord et la Géorgie. 

Dans un communiqué datant du 17 juillet (voir actualité du 17 juillet), Herman Hamers, président de la zone FIDE 1.1 (Europe de l'Ouest), avait exprimé les inquiétudes concernant le choix de la FIDE de faire disputer le championnat dans cette zone du Caucase, relayant ainsi les craintes des fédérations néerlandaise, française et allemande aprčs avoir tenu compte des recommandations des Ministčres des Affaires Étrangčres respectifs. 

Depuis, le conflit a éclaté et semé le doute sur la pertinence du maintien de l'organisation de ce championnat ŕ Nalchik. Dans une lettre ouverte, des joueuses invitées ŕ disputer le championnat ont demandé ŕ la FIDE de déplacer cette compétition, mais la FIDE, par la voix de son président Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, a répondu que le championnat était maintenu ŕ Nalchik.

Malgré les efforts consentis lors de sa préparation pour ce championnat, oů elle était l'une des favorites pour le titre mondial, Marie a donné la priorité ŕ sa sécurité. Le ministčre des affaires étrangčres conseillant formellement d'éviter de se rendre dans le Caucase, elle a dű se résoudre ŕ renoncer au voyage et, par conséquent, ŕ la participation au championnat.

Between reason and passion, Marie had to make a difficult but logical choice. 

Let us recall that this championship must proceed of August 28 to September 18 with Nalchik, capital of Kabardino-Balkarie, autonomous republic of the Russian and frontier Federation with l' Ossétie of North and Georgia. 

In an official statement dating from July 17 (see topicality of July 17), Hermann Hamers, president of zone FIDE 1.1 (Europe of l' West), had expressed concerns concerning the choice of the FIDE to make dispute the championship in this zone of the Caucasus, thus relaying fears of the Dutchwoman federations, Frenchwoman and allemande after having taken account of the recommendations of the respective Ministries for the Foreign affairs. 

Since, the conflict burst and sowed the doubt about the relevance of the maintenance of l' organization of this championship with Nalchik. In an open letter, players invited to dispute the championship asked the FIDE to move this competition, but the FIDE, by the voice of its president Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, answered that the championship was maintained in Nalchik. 

In spite of the efforts authorized during its preparation for this championship, where it was l' one of favorite for the world title, Marie gave the priority to its safety. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs advising d' formally; to avoid going in the Caucasus, it had to be solved to give up the voyage and, consequently, the participation in the championship.

From the official coverage of the WWCC:

This was a big laugh!  In reporting on the opening ceremony, the English translation reads "During the pompous ceremony, local dancers and singers entertained the public and the chess game was also personified through youngsters in costumes."  Well, that's FIDE and its cohorts all around, isn't it - POMPOUS!  LOL!  Everyone in the US knows all about Pompous Assholes!  Hmmmm, someone seriously needs to consider hiring a professional translator of Russian into colloquial English!  

There's more!

"In his welcome speech, President of the Republic, Arcen Kanokov expressed the gratitude and hapiness of the republic to have the World Championship in its capital and promised good organization, great interest from the inhabitants, excellent conditions and clean, healthy environment for the tournament."  Oh yeah!  Hey baby, want to enjoy a clean and healthy environment, wink wink.  LOL!  What are conditions like normally, then?

Eleven chess femmes did not show up for Round 1, nearly TWENTY PERCENT of the invited players.  What a hoot!  As I said elsewhere, whoever earns this title should have an asterisk after her name because, unfortunately, with such a large portion of the field missing, this cannot be considered a true test of skill.  Well, not that it is a true test anyway, being a knock-out format.  That only goes to show that FIDE and Kirsan continue to treat Women's Chess as a joke.  FIDE no longer endorses a knock-out format for the MEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP.  So why continue to use this format for the WOMEN'S CHAMPIONSHIP?  It is not a true test of relative chessplaying skills, everyone knows that.  Geez! 

Okay, since eleven players didn't show up, that means several players received an automatic WIN by default.  Already the results are skewed and even more so, given the knock-out format, as only 32 winners move on to Round 2.  What a joke.  For shame, FIDE, shame shame on you.  I wonder, what are the other players thinking who had to actually play their matches? If it was me, I'd be pissed off, to say the least. 

Oh yeah - how did the chess femmes who did show up do?  Results first game, Round 1.

In the News:

bulletAugust 29, 2008, mynews.india:  Upsets in what I think are regionals for young players in the National Indian Chess Championships:  Gandhinagar: In a battle of wits and will, local star Megha Gupta (7.5) created one of the biggest sensations by defeating top seed Orissa player Sunyasakta Satpathy (7) in the 9th round of Under-11 Girls category in 22nd National Chess Championship being played at the Preksha Vidhya Bharti Institute, here today.  Lowly ranked Megha, playing with advantageous white pieces undermined the stature of her mighty opponent, Sunyasakta, and played according to position to clinch the game. In the middle game, Megha won a pawn and maintained it till end to win in a marathon battle of 89 moves. Sunyasakta employed every trick of her arsenal to nullify Megha''s advantage, but her opponent outsmarted all of them.  With this defeat, Sunyasakta has lost her top spot.  

Meanwhile, on second board, over night join leader and another local start Sweety Patel scored a brilliant victory over Monnisha G K of Tamil Nadu in Sicilian Defence game to emerge as a sole leader with individual score of 8 points. Sweety and Monnish both fought tooth and nails as they knew that today's victory will give decisive advantage to win championship as just two more rounds to go. However, Lady Luck finally smiled on Sweety, who emerged victorious to give her sole leadership with eight points. While second spot is being held by another local star Megha with 7.5 points. 

Hungarian Women's Chess Championship
August 22 - 29, 2008
Coverage at Chessdom

This event determines spots to the Hungarian Women's Chess Olympiad Team.  Someone at Chessdom surely has a crush on WGM Anna Rudolf.  She's a fetching young lady but - come on guys!  Anyway, chess outside of the world of FIDE and the WWCC continues unabated (thank Goddess!) Oh - what's this I see - the writer at Chessdom.com is Laszlo Rudolf.  Father? Husband? Brother?  (Photo: Anna Rudolf and friends, Anna is on the right, from the Vandoeuvre Open).

So, how did Little Red do?  Don't know yet!  I couldn't find any coverage of this event other than at Chessdom, and at this time (8:01PM CST), they had not updated.

Anyway, here is the list of the original participants, all vying for places on the Olympiad Team:

1 Vajda Szidónia IM 2397 Atomerőmű SE Paks
2 Mádl Ildikó IM 2387 Csuti-Hydrocomp SK Zalaegerszeg
3 Gara Anita WGM 2340 MTK-Erzsébetváros Budapest
4 Gara Tícia WGM 2319 Aquaprofit Nagykanizsa
5 Rudolf Anna WGM 2337 Decs
6 Schneider Veronika WIM 2316 BEAC
7 Horváth Júlia WIM 2240 Vasas SC
8 Tóth Lili WIM 2208 Atomerőmű SE Paks
9 Forgó Éva WIM 2200 Csuti-Hydrocomp SK Zalaegerszeg
10 Ignácz Mária WIM 2178 Aquaprofit Nagykanizsa
11 Domány Zsófia WFM 2177 Makói SVSE
12 Albert Kornélia WFM 2159 Mátyásföldi Lawn Tennis Club-Bp.
13 Tóth Sarolta WFM 2151 Orosházi SE
14 Remete Eszter 2132 Haladás VSE
15 Kiss Emese 2145 Pénzügyőr SE
16 Hidegh Eszter 2115 Mátra SE Gyöngyös

August 30, 2008:

Hungarian Women's Chess Championship
August 22 - 29, 2008
According to Susan Polgar's chess blog, WGM Anna Rudolf won the Hungarian Women's Championship and in doing so, has secured a place on the Hungarian Women's Chess Olympiad Team.  Congratulations to WGM Rudolf.  BTW, I learned by reading somewhere (Chessdom?) that Laszlo Rudolf is Anna's father.  

Women's World Chess Championship
August 28 - September 19, 2008
Nalchik, Kabardina-Balkaria, Russia

I updated my coverage through the second game of Round 1.

In the News:

bulletGM Judit Polgar to play on Hungarian Men's Chess Olympiad Team!  Report from Susan Polgar's blog from Chessdom.com, August 30, 2008.

August 31, 2008:

In the News:

bulletGM 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.

Women's World Chess Championship
August 28 - September 19, 2008
Nalchik, Kabardina-Balkaria, Russia

I updated my coverage through the first round of playoffs Round 1.

 
        

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