Stefanova Leads Women's World Chess Blitz in Batumi after 9 Rounds; Kosteniuk, Koneru, Harika Right Behind

Fantastic Chess continued on the third of the Batumi Women's World Rapid Chess Championship on Saturday in Georgia. Overnight joint leaders Antoaneta Stefanova and Koneru Humpy had varying fortunes. Stefanova is now sole leader after nine rounds with 7.5 points as she drew with Koneru Humpy, beat Nino Khurtsidze and Kateryna Lahno. Humpy, on the other hand, after drawing with Stefanova, lost to Kateryna Lahno and beat Guo Qi. That dropped Humpy to joint third with Kateryna Lahno and Anna Muzychuk.


Opening ceremony of the Batumi
Women's World Chess Championship.
In hot pursuit behind Stefanova is the very talented 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. Her fiery attacks and sharp play fetched her a draw against Huang Qian, plus two superlative wins over Elisabeth Paehtz and Tan Zhongyi.

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Women's World Rapid Chess Championship in Batumi: Koneru Humpy Leads with Stefanova; Alexandra Kosteniuk Upsets Top Seed Muzychuk

Exciting chess is defining the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship currently on in Batumi, Georgia. The first six rounds have been played and already the 12th Women's World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk has beaten top seed Anna Anna Muzychuk of Slovakia. The attacking champion is in joint second place after six rounds even as India's Koneru Humpy and Bulgaria's Antoaneta Stefanova lead just a half point more. Apart from Humpy, India's other player Harika Dronavalli is doing pretty well too. Here are great video reports of the proceedings so far:








The top standings at the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship 2012 after six rounds is as follows:

1		GM	Koneru Humpy	IND	2589	5.0	17.0	24.5	2708
2		GM	Stefanova Antoaneta	BUL	2518	5.0	14.5	21.5	2720
3		GM	Kosteniuk Alexandra	RUS	2457	4.5	15.5	23.0	2714
4		WGM	Huang Qian	CHN	2417	4.5	15.0	22.5	2716
5			Wang Jue	CHN	2364	4.5	12.5	20.0	2706
6		GM	Lahno Kateryna	UKR	2546	4.5	12.5	18.5	2623
7		GM	Zhao Xue	CHN	2549	4.0	16.0	24.0	2596
8		GM	Cramling Pia	SWE	2478	4.0	15.5	21.5	2588
9		GM	Muzychuk Anna	SLO	2598	4.0	13.0	19.0	2510
10		IM	Paehtz Elisabeth	GER	2491	4.0	12.5	17.5	2545

Three rounds would be played on Saturday - 7,8, and 9. The top pairings for Saturday include Stefanova-Humpy, Lahno-Jue, Kosteniuk-Huang, Muzychuk-Cramling, and Zhongyi-Harika.


You can watch the Batumi chess championship live from India time 4.30 pm onwards at the official website. 

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Swell Chess Video Interview with 2012 US Chess Champion Hikaru Nakamura

The chess future is about Nakamura, Carlsen, and Karjakin! Nakamura looks out for pretty girls when he looks up from his chess board while playing...!
Gary Kasparov...!

You will find these and other interesting comments by the US Chess Champion 2012 Hikaru Nakamura in this great indepth interview with Jennifer Shahade. Surely a chess video not to be missed.

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Irritated Viswanathan Anand Spikes Critics (Kasparov Comments Links Updated)

World Chess Champion 2012 Viswanathan Anand, who has just won his fifth world title, hit out at chess great Gary Kasparov and other critics for suggesting that he lacked motivation.

"I think that this is the first time I have played a match where so many people seemed to have negative opinion about my play. And the thing is I do not think I lacked motivation," Anand said about his clash with Israel's Boris Gelfand, whom he beat in Moscow on Wednesday to win his fifth world title. The 42-year-old Anand told a news channel in an interview from Moscow that Kasparov "keeps talking about my age" but Gelfand was slightly older at 44.

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Batumi Rapid Women's World Chess Championship: Humpy Just Half Point Behind Huang, Cramling

The first three rounds of the World Women's Chess Rapid Championship 2012 being held in Batumi were completed on Thursday. The strong competition includes top seed Anna Muzychuk, European women's chess champion Valentina Gunina, women's world chess championship finalist Koneru Humpy, European women's chess silver medalist Tatiana Kosintseva, former women's world chess champions Antoaneta Stefanova and Alexandra Kosteniuk, US women's chess champion Irina Krush, and Armenia's leading player Elina Danielian. 

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Surprising Developments in the World Chess Championship Match

There is this real fun chess graphic in the Mad Magazine. It's great to share it with Chess Magazine Black and White Readers!
Thu, 05/31/2012 - 12:26 pm
Author:
The Editors
BORED GAME DEPT.Yesterday, Viswanathan Anand successfully defended his title as World Chess Champion by defeating Boris Gelfand. Now, we know what you’re thinking — the only thing more boring than playing chess has got to be watching chess be played. Well that’s where you’re wrong! The match was filled with exciting, surprising events! Don’t get us wrong, it was still boring – but for a chess game, pretty exciting!

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