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Chess Femme
News by Goddesschess |
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| I only report on tournaments where at least one female played. If it's men only playing, it doesn't get reported here. If I'm not sure a named player is male or female, I leave the name out, so on occasion I may omit a chess femme. | |
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37th Chess Olympiad: May 20 - June 4, 2006, 13 Rounds. Turin, Italy. The top 20 "Men's Teams" had no women playing on them. Boring...snore. But the Women's Teams - wow! Lots of sparkling play among the top teams and big moves made in the final standings by teams such as Netherlands (started ranked 18th and finished in 7th place); Slovenia (started ranked in 22nd place and finished in 10th place); Vietnam (started ranked in 26th place and finished in 16th place); Turkey (started in 41st place and finished in 24th place); Indonesia (started in 68th place and finished in 40th place). The highly touted Russian team finished in 2nd place, while the under-rated Chinese finished in 3rd without any of their "big guns" playing. Scary! The biggest NON-story was the US team, which seems to have gotten next to NO press coverage in the sports pages and - even more shockingly to my mind - rather little discussion on the chess message boards. GM Susan Polgar refused to play on the US Women's Olympiad Team because of a major disagreement with Garry Kasparov's chess foundation. As I understand it, it seems a third party sponsorship was offered by an unnamed entity with deep pockets to Polgar's end of what she thought was a sort of partnership with the Kasparov chess people, but the sponsorship was lost because the opportunity she thought was there was - not. Well, I read online reports in Mig's chess column and at Susan Polgar's own blog, also bits written here and there. It all sounds rather convoluted and, to me at least, confusing; I concluded, reluctantly, that the fight was not, as Susan Polgar wrote in her blog, about proper and lengthy training of the players selected to the U.S. women's team, but about something else entirely. How disappointing. Well, it seems that what was BIG news to fans of women's chess was NO news to everyone else. Ultimately, I am left to speculate by my lonesome as to Susan Polgar's inability to reach a compromise with the U.S. Chess Federation. Despite Ms. Polgar's absence at this year's Olympiad, the U.S. Women's team was, I thought, excellent! IM Irina Krush, who has suffered her fair share of criticism from me in the past, played very well (Board 2, 8.0/12). Way to go, girl. WGM Rusudan Goletiani played even better for the U.S. Women on Board 3, scoring 8.5/12. The U.S. Women's Team - without Susan Polgar - missed earning a medal by the skin of their teeth - 0.5 of a point! By the way, were there any actual native-born Americans playing on either the U.S. Women's or Men's Olympiad Teams??? I guess W.A.S.P.s aren't playing chess these days, too busy playing soccer... Final Standings, Women's Teams (Final Rank first, Starting Rank second): (1;2) Ukraine; (2;1) Russia; (3;6) China; (4;5) USA; (5;4) Hungary; (6;3) Georgia; (7;18) Netherlands; (8;7) Armenia; (9;17) Slovenia; (10;22) Czech Republic; (11;8) Germany; (12;9) India; (13;10) Bulgaria; (14;11) Romania; (15;23) Vietnam; (16;26) Cuba; (17;25) Latvia; (18;15) France; (19;14) Greece; (20;12) Poland; (21;32) Belarus; (22;16) Slovakia; (23;13) Lithuania; (24;41) Turkey; (25;19) Serbia & Montenegro; (26;60) Philippines; (27;37) Iran; (28;24) Spain; (29;20) Israel; (30;36) Croatia; (31;40) Sweden; (32;39) Uzbekistan; (33;34) Estonia; (34;29) Mongolia; (35;28) Argentina; (36;43) Turkmenistan; (37;21) Italy A; (38;33) Switzerland; (39;30) Moldova; (40;68) Indonesia; (41;51) Canada; (42;35) England; (43;71) Venezuela; (44;58) Malaysia; (45;31) Kazakhstan; (46;27) Ecuador; (47;53) Portugal; (48;46) Columbia; (49;63) El Salvador; (50;55) Iceland; (51;52) Azerbaijan; (52;61) Brazil; (53;47) Mexico; (54;38) Australia; (55;59) Denmark; (56;50) Finland; (57;44) Bosnia & Herzegovina; (58;56) Austria; (59;42) Norway; (60;49) Peru; (61;45) Kyrgyzstan; (62;75) Luxembourg; (63;78) Bolivia; (64;48) FYROM; (65;70) Italy B; (66;73) South Africa; (67;64) IPCA; (68;57) Bangladesh; (69;65) Albania; (70;62) Dominican Republic; (71;66) Guatemala; (72;54) IBCA; (73;72) Scotland; (74;83) Tajikistan; (75;69) Wales; (76;80) Jamaica; (77;79) Sri Lanka; (78;82) Ireland; (79;87) Algeria; (80;84) New Zealand; (81; 77) Iraq; (82;86) Nigeria; (83;85) Costa Rica; (84;88) Botswana; (85;89) Japan; (86;98) Malta; (87;67) ICSC; (88;74) Puerto Rico; (89;81) UAE; (90;101) Panama; (91;97) Chinese Taipei); (92;102) Qatar; (93;106) Surinam; (94;90) Kenya; (95;92) Fiji; (96;96) Angola; (97;108) Yemen; (98;94) Trinidad & Tobago; (99;91) Libya; (100;99) Namibia; (101;100) Netherlands Antilles; (102;95) U.S. Virgin Islands; (103;93) Honduras; (104;76) Afghanistan; (105;107) Uganda; (106;103) Rwanda; (107;104) Somalia; (108;105) Sudan. How did the 9 female GMs in the world do? Judit Polgar (GM HUN 2711) did not play; Susan Polgar (not shown on FIDE list of top ranked women players as of April, 2006) did not play; Humpy Koneru (GM IND 2548) played on the Indian Women's team and scored 8.0/12; Alexandria Kosteniuk (GM RUS 2540) played on the Russian Women's team and scored 6.0/10; Pia Cramling (GM SWE 2520) did not play; Maia Chiburdanidze (GM GEO 2504) did not play; Antoaneta Stefanova (GM BUL 2502) played on the Bulgarian Women's team and scored 9.0/12 - very impressive; Zhu Chen (GM QAT 2483) played on the Qatar Men's team and scored 7.0/13; Peng Zhaoquin (GM NED 2395) played on the Netherlands' Women's team and scored 8.0/11. And what's this about Zhu Chen - I thought Qatar is a Muslim country - am I wrong? I wonder if there were issues about a female playing on a men's chess team because of the conservative nature of some Muslims? A Tsk-Tsk Note: By now everyone who cares has read about the brew-ha-ha involving a shoving match between two men over Sex, er, I mean Chess - Kitten Arianne Caoili. I featured Caoili in an article back in 2002 at Goddesschess; at that time, she was a very promising 14 year old player for the Phillipines. My my, how things change! Well, shame shame on me but I did write an update on Caoili, focusing on the brew-ha-ha and it's aftermath. It was just too delicious to resist. Anyway, if you're interested, you can find the Caoili update at Goddesschess here. I got this report at TWIC on July 11, 2006: 3rd All-China Games: May 20 - 26, 2006, 11 rounds, 43 players. Results reported from TWIC. GM Wang Hao (CHN 2605) won this event with 8.5/11. I am absolutely unable to distinguish Chinese female names from male names, so I relied exclusively on "wg" and "wfm" titles to report the results here. In doing so, I am fully aware that I may have omitted a number of chess femmes, for which I tender apologies. I did, however, recognize GM Xie Jun's name: 11. Xie Jun g CHN 2573, 6.5; 17. Gu Xiaobing wg CHN 2371, 6.0; 18. Qin Kanying wg CHN 2465, 6.0; 23. Huang Qian wm CHN 2391, 5.5; 25. Li Ruofan wg CHN 2391, 5.5; 26. Kuang Yinghui wm CHN 2303, 5.0; 38. Zhang Jilin wm CHN 2294, 4.5; 39. Xu Yuanyuan wg CHN 2405, 4.5; 40. Wang Pin wg CHN 2393, 4.0; 43. Ning Chunhong wg CHN 2363, 2.0. I got this report at TWIC on June 28, 2006: 2006
Chicago Open: May 25-28, 2006 Over 500 players in all
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