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January, 2008:

Updated February 5, 2008:

13th HIT Open 
January 26 - February 1, 2008
The event was won by GM Borki Predojevic (BIH 2641) with 6.5/9.  Two chess femmes participated in this 30 player event:  WGM Jana Krivec (SLO 2345), in 14th place with 5.0; and WGM Ana Srebrnic (SLO 2314), who finished in 28th place with 2.5.

FINEC Tournament
January 24 - February 1, 2008 
St. Petersburg
The FINEC consisted of three separate events this year:  The GMA, GMB and WGM Tournaments.  No chess femmes participated in the GMA event.  One participated in the GMB, WGM Irina Sudakova (RUS 2333), who finished in 8th place with 3.0/9.  The GMB was won by GM Spartak Vysochin (UKR 2519), with 6.0/9.  Here are the final standings for the WGM event:

January 20, 2008:

Aditya Birla National under-13 Girls Chess Championship
Posted online: Saturday , January 19, 2008 at 02:16:16
Updated: Saturday , January 19, 2008 at 02:31:59

Mumbai, January 18 Padmini Rout of Orisa clinched the Aditya Birla National under-13 Girls Chess Championship organized by Bombay Chess Association at Andheri Sports Complex concluded at Andheri Sports Complex on Friday.

In the deciding game Padmini defeated Shalmali Gagare of Maharashtra to win the championship. The match was evenly poised till the middle game but Shalmali, who had recently won a bronze medal in the under-14 girls world championship in Turkey, could not be able to hold it in the end game and lost in 69 moves.

On the second board NLV Anusha of Andhra Pradesh has not taken any risk and accepted the draw against J Sharanya of Tamilnadu to clinch the silver medal of the tournament.

On the third board J Mohana Priya agreed for a draw against B Taraswini of Pondecheri to win the bronz medal. Mohana priya Scored 8 points and came third on better progressive Score.

Cuban Women's Chess Championship
Holguin, Jan 18 (acn) The crown of Cuba's national chess championship (women) stayed on the head of defending champ Grand Master (GM) Maritza Arribas, who totalled 9.5 points after drawing with International Master (IM) Lisandra Ordaz today in eastern Holguin city.

Arribas (2334), from Santiago de Cuba, finished half a point ahead of Ordaz (2284), from Pinar del Rio, and obtained her second consecutive win in national championships and eighth along her career, only one win behind record winner IM Asela de Armas, from Villa Clara.

Third in the scoring finished FIDE Master (FM) Olennis Linares (2249) from Santiago de Cuba, also with 9 points, who drew in the last round with GM Sulennis Pina (2299), from Granma province.

Pina finished fourth with 7.5 points followed by FM Yerisbel Miranda (2126), from Pinar del Rio, with same score. FM Zenia Corrales (2128) from Pinar finished sixth with 7 units, half a point ahead of IM Yuleiki Fleites (2217) from Villa Clara.

Positions eight to fourteenth were occupied in order by FM Jennifer Perez (2160) from Villa Clara with 6.5 points; FM Ivette Catala (2136) from Havana with 6.5; host FM Lisandra Llaudy (2234) with 5.5 units; GM Vivian Ramon (2293) from Havana with 5; IM Zirka Frometa (2152) from Santiago (4.5); IM Yaniet Marrero (2299) from Las Tunas (4.5) and expert Yaniela Forgas from Santiago de Cuba with 2.5 units.

January 19,  2008:

African Junior Chess Championships
(January, 2008)
I got this information from an article reported in the Malawi Daily Times dated January 8, 2008:  South African Wiid Darleen won this year’s Africa junior girls' chess champions.  Carmen De Jarger emerged second while Rocha Valquiria was third.  It wasn't reported what the girls' scores were.  According to the article, South African IM Melisa Greef opted to participate in the open group because she wanted to face tough opposition.

The Hindu has a brief story about two chess princesses in India who hail from Visakhapatnam, the "City of Destiny", N.L.V. Anusha (2010) and Y.G. Sriharika (1896).

The Navhind Times (January 10, 2008) reports on the 3rd Asian Schools Chess Championship (exerpted from story):  Double world Under-8 champ Ivana Maria Furtado, representing India, added yet another feather to her medal-studded cap claiming the gold jointly with Sri Lankan Jayaranthna with 6.5 points each in Under-9 girls category at the end of 7th round of 3rd Asian schools chess championship which concluded at Kandy, Sri Lanka, today [January 9].  ...

Ivana, a Std III student of Our Lady of Rosary HS, Dona Paula, beat Thilakarathna in the first, Kahada Invri in the 2nd, Gunawardana P in the 3rd, drew with Jayaranthna in the 4th, beat Abeykoon L in the 5th, Balahewa D in the 6th and Sooriyaarachchi in the 7th. ...

Ivana, who has now made a habit of winning medals in international champiosnhips, and has no equals in India, actually had won the Asian schools crown in 2006 in Singapore, but she had participated in Under-7 category then. She had also won the team gold then. That apart, Ivana has won the World School Chess championship in Under-8 category in Greece last May. With today’s victory, Ivana has a tally of 7 international gold medals - a record in itself, both at state and national levels. And, it was for this very reason that, the then sports minister Mr Pandurang Madkaikar had awarded her with an exceptional award of Rs 5 lakh in March 2007. Certainly, it proved to be a great motivating factor, as Ivana kept India’s and specially Goa’s flags flying very high with a consistency seldom seen in other disciplines. Ivana had her father Mr Eli as her manager. ...

January 7, 2008:

Girlie men can't take the heat of Anna Rudolf's chess!
They went squealing to the arbiter about "cheating" like the three little piggies.  Story first reported in Chessdom.  Blog takes at Chess, Goddess and Everything, Paul Hoffman's blog, Chesslodge, and many more; some quotes from an undated but (evidently) recent interview at Chessdom (when will those people learn to date their articles and entries, geez) with GM Christian Bauer, the highest rated player at the Vandoeuvre Open (who lost a game to Ms. Rudolf):

Hello Mr Bauer! You played a game with Anna in round 2 that she is particularly happy about. Did you have the feeling that she might be getting external help ?

I didn't think so during the game and right after. It only occurred to me that there was a chance she did, when she had scored 4/4 and some other players were complaining, but I considered the probability to be very small. I then looked at her games with some friends of mine from the organization, they were checking with some program if Anna's moves were matching the (or most of the) suggestions of the engine. It was fairly clear that she was playing her own moves, so my little doubts were even reduced.

Thank you Mr. Bauer. Would you like to add anything?

At the end it was fairly evident that Anna Rudolf didn't cheat, a general opinion that was expressed at the prize-giving by Gerard Simon, the president of Vandoeuvre chess club. She deserved her norms and result after playing such a good tournament.

Cheating?  The only cheating here is what the three little piggies may have been up to behind closed doors as they schemed to keep Anna Rudolf from finishing in the top three at the Vandoeurve Open.

January 6, 2008:

WFM Elizabeth Vicary 
I just discovered that Elizabeth (Liz) Vicary has a blog.  She's witty and erudite and oh so biting - a real treat to read.  Check it out.

The Navhind Times (January 2, 2008), reported that India’s Ivana Marie Furtado, who has twice won the World Youth Championship Girls’ Under 8 title (October 17 – 29, 2006, Batumi, Georgia, 8.5/11)( November 17 – 29, 2007, Antalya, Turkey, 9.0/11), will participate in the 3rd Asian Schools Chess Festival organized by Chess Federation of Sri Lanka and recognized by FIDE from January 3-10 in Kandy. Perhaps another chess superstar in the making.

Update: Navhind Times:  Panaji, Jan 6: World U-8 double champ Ivana Maria Furtado chalked up her third successive victory in Under-9 category at 3rd Asian Schools Chess Championship in progress in Kandy (S Lanka).  Ivana beat T Ratna in 51 moves first and then got the measure of Kahada Inuri in 48. In the 3rd round, she beat Kuna Vardhana in 53 moves.  At the moment, she is the joint leader with another player. There are four rounds more to go.

Newindpress.com has an article (January 5, 2008) about six year old chess player Muthyala Bansi Prathima. Bansi started playing chess when she was five, and her coach says she’s a world champion in the making. It’s not unusual for their study regime to be 8 hours a day. The six-year-old is currently sixth in the all-India Under-7 rankings and she is her state’s champion in the Under-9 category. Her participation in the 2007 World Youth Chess Championship held at Antalya, Turkey (November 17 - 29, 2007), earned her a special ‘Young Talent for the year 2007’ gold medal. Hmmmm, at some point I expect infant players will show up at tournaments pushed in baby carriages.

The Hindu online (January 4, 2008) reported that S.S. Hashini of Tiruchi won the Tamil Nadu State under-7 girls’ chess championship title with 9.0/10. I wonder how long the little girl has been playing? 9 of 10 is a huge score!

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