Web Chess Mercantile Presents The Ladies of Olympic Gold in Chess for 2010

Now at Web Chess Mercantile

October 4, 2010

With the closing cerimonies of the 2010 Chess Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia this week we witnessed the honoring of the worlds greatest chess players.

Among them were a group of young ladies from Russia. The Ladies: GM Tatiana Kosintseva, IM Nadezhda Kosintseva ,GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, IM Alisa Galliamova andWGM Valentina Gunina , all displayed exceptional determination and due diligence to win the competition and capture the gold medal for their home country.

Web Chess Mercantile would like to take this time to congratulateThe Ladies of Olympic Gold for 2010 and allow all of our readers a brief view into the lives of these Olympic Champions.

• Lady Grandmaster Tatiana 

Kosintseva

(Russian: Татьяна Косинцева) (born April 11, 1986 inArkhangelsk) is a Russian chess player who has achieved the FIDE title of Grandmaster (October 2009). As of September 2010 her FIDE Elo

 rating 

is 2573, making her the fourth ranked female player in the world.

A chance start and instant success

Along with elder sister Nadezhda, the six-year-old Tatiana became a chess player by virtue of a twist of fate. Wandering home from dance lessons with their mother, the pair happened upon a chess club and decided there and then to take up the game.

As a youngster, she recalls being inspired by a book of former world champion Alexander Alekhine's

 games and was similarly impressed with the play of Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer.

Soon after, she became a fearsome competitor at the top level of junior chess, her collection of tournament prizes rivalling even her sister's haul. At the World Youth Chess Championship, she earned silver medals at the Under-10 (Cala Galdana, 1996) and Under-12 (Cannes, 1997) events. In the Under-10 category of the 1996 European Youth Chess Championship held at Rimavska Sobota she went one better, that time taking home the gold medal. Silver medals were added at the Euro events in Mureck (1998) and Kallithea (2000), at Under-12 and Under-18 level respectively

National and European Champion

Kosintseva sisters, Nadezhda and Tatiana                

In 2004 and 2007 Tatiana won the Russian Women's Chess Championship. Going close in 2006, the sisters finished a half point behind winner Ekaterina Korbut.[1]

Sharing a mutual talent for chess, the sisters are also close companions outside the game; both attend a law course at Pomor University in their hometown and study together. Inevitably, they play side by side in team competitions, most notably at the Chess Olympiad as part of the Russian Women's national team.

Tatiana Kosintseva was also the winner of the 2007 Women's European Individual Chess Championship with a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2774, and won again in 2009 with a TPR of 2551.

Over the last few years, she has remained marginally, but consistently the higher rated of the siblings and more importantly, has overtaken Alexandra Kosteniuk, to become Russia's highest rated woman player.

• IM Nadezhda Kosintseva             

N

adezhda Kosintseva (Russian: Надежда Косинцева; born January 14, 1985) is a Russian chess player. She holds the titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster.

A prolific champion of junior chess, she has an enviable history at the European Youth Chess Championship, taking gold medals in 1995 (Girls Under-10, Verdun), 1997 (Girls Under-12, Tallinn) and 2000 (Girls Under-18, Kallithea). There were silver and bronze medals at the other age groups too.

At the World Youth Chess Championship of 1998, held in Oropesa del Mar, she took the gold medal in the Girls Under-14 event. She was twice the bronze medalist at the World Junior Chess Championship (Girls, Under-20) in 2001 and 2002.

At the European Individual Women's Chess Championship 2005, held in Moldova in June, she finished in second place behind Kateryna Lahno.

In 2006, along with younger sister Tatiana (as of 2009 an International Grandmaster), she shared second place at the Russian women's superfinal, one-half point behind the winner. Being of similar strength, the two sisters normally play on consecutive boards of the national women's team at the Chess Olympiad and other team events.

In December 2008, she won the Russian Women's Championship in Moscow. She finished second in this event in 2009.

• Lady Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk   

Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk

(Russian: Александра Константиновна Костенюк; born April 23, 1984 in Perm, Russian SFSR) is a Russian chess Grandmaster.

Alexandra learned to play chess at the age of five after being taught by her father. She has a little sister named Oxana, who is a FIDE master level chess player.

In 2001, at the age of 17, she reached the final of the World Women's Chess Championship, but was defeated by Zhu Chen.

Three years later, she became European women's champion by winning the tournament in Dresden, Germany. She also won the 2005 Russian Women's Championship, held in Samara, Russia, finishing with a score of +7 =4 -0.

In August 2006, she became the first Chess960 (Fischer random) women's world champion after beating Germany's top female player Elisabeth Pähtz 5.5-2.5. She defended that title successfully in 2008 by beating Kateryna Lahno 2.5-1.5.[1]

However, her top success so far has been to win the Women's World Chess Championship 2008, beating in the final the young Chinese prodigy Hou Yifan, with a score of 2.5-1.5.

In November 2004, she was awarded the International Grandmaster title, becoming the tenth woman to receive the highest title of the World Chess Federation, FIDE.

Before that, she had also obtained the titles of Woman Grandmaster and International Master.

Kosteniuk's mottos have been "chess is cool" and "beauty and intelligence can go together".

With these as a backdrop, Kosteniuk has been promoting chess in the capacity of a fashion model and ambassador of chess in order to spark interest in the game around the world

Alexandra's official Website

:   

http://www.kosteniuk.com/       

Her Blog:  

http://www.chessblog.com

  

• International Master: Alisa 

Galliamova

Alisa Galliamova (Russian: Алиса Михайловна Галлямова, Tatar Cyrillic: Алисә Михаил кызы Галләмова, Latin: Alisä Mixail qızı Ğällämova; born 18 January 1972) is a Russian chess player, who was born to Russian father and Tatar mother.

She holds the FIDE titles Woman Grandmaster and International Master. In 1988 she won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship. She was married to Grandmaster Vassily Ivanchuk, one of the top rated players in the world.

In December 1997, she won the candidates tournament for the Women's World Chess Championship held in Groningen, Netherlands. She was scheduled to play a match with Xie Jun, who finished second, in August, 1998 and the winner of that match was supposed to play a match in November 1998 with Zsuzsa Polgar for the Women's World Chess Championship.

However, after the match with Xie Jun had already been scheduled, Galliamova objected because the entire match was scheduled to be played in China, the home of her rival. The reason for this was because only China had bid for the match. Galliamova wanted half of the match to be played in Kazan, Russia. However, the Russians did not have the money required. Finally, when Galliamova failed to show up to play the match, the match was declared forfeited to Xie Jun.

FIDE then scheduled a match between Xie Jun and Zsuzsa Polgar for November 1998. However, Polgar said that she could not play at that time because she was pregnant. After Polgar had given birth to her son, Tom, in March, 1999, FIDE again tried to schedule a match. This time Polgar said that she could not play the match because she was nursing.

Finally, after repeated efforts to organize a match which was supposed to have taken place in 1998, FIDE declared that Polgar had forfeited her title and that the title was vacant. FIDE decided to let Galliamova back into the cycle and held a match between Xie Jun and Galliamova for the Women's World Chess Championship.

This time, Galliamova was willing to play because her original demand had been met in that Russia had come up with the money to sponsor half of the match. The match was held in Kazan, Russia and Shenyang, China in August, 1999 and Xie Jun won by 8.5 - 6.5.

In March 2006, Galliamova again reached the finals of the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship, competing against Xu Yuhua. 

• Womans Grandmaster: Valentina Gunina

Unfortunately at the time of this article, there is not much information valentia other than her friendship with GM Natalia Por and her ability for briliant tactical play. I am including an except from Natalia's post called Rock, Paper, Scissors which includes a bit about Valentia and a noteworthy game played between the two.

written by the WGM Natalia Pogonina

Young and funny: Natalia Pogonina and Valentina Gunina 

at Russian Superfinal'05

"Now back to the Russian Superfinal’09. In round 7 I was facing WFM (yes, some people don’t like applying for titles!) Valentina Gunina rated 2448 FIDE. I am friends with this gifted young tactical player, but that doesn’t keep us from fighting like ultimate enemies when it comes to chess. In our game Valya had a big advantage after the opening, but then lost most of it when I suddenly changed the course of the game by offering a pawn: "

There you have it,  The Ladies of Olympic Gold In Chess for 2010. I do suppose that I could have dwealt on the fact that they were underdogs to the womans team from China coming into this competition, or how they repeatedly won their games against their competion. But now you Know a little bit about these wonderful ladies and I do believe you will hear of them again in the future...

Thank Y

ou for reading

To your Chess playing Success

Terry Ritschard