Friday, November 29, 2013

GM Alexandra Kosteniuk Back in Top Ten Women World Rankings

Hooray!  She's worked hard the past few years and this year, 2013, her hard work with her coach has paid off.  Congratulations to GM Alexandra Kosteniuk for a fine year.  Check it out, Alexandra posted about it recently at one of her blogs, Chess Queen (TM):


 

FIDE November 2013 Top 100 Women Ratings List has Alexandra at #13 (as of November 29, 2013) -- female players rated at 2500 and above:

RankNameTitleCountryRatingGamesB-Year
1 Polgar, Judit g HUN 2689 0 1976
2 Hou, Yifan g CHN 2629 6 1994
3 Koneru, Humpy g IND 2618 22 1987
4 Muzychuk, Anna g SLO 2566 6 1990
5 Zhao, Xue g CHN 2565 15 1985
6 Dzagnidze, Nana g GEO 2556 0 1987
7 Lagno, Kateryna g UKR 2542 18 1989
8 Khotenashvili, Bela m GEO 2524 11 1988
9 Kosintseva, Nadezhda g RUS 2523 0 1985
10 Cramling, Pia g SWE 2520 10 1963
11 Ju, Wenjun wg CHN 2518 36 1991
12 Hoang, Thanh Trang g HUN 2511 11 1980
13 Kosteniuk, Alexandra g RUS 2510 25 1984
14 Tan, Zhongyi wg CHN 2510 15 1991
15 Sebag, Marie g FRA 2510 0 1986
16 Gunina, Valentina g RUS 2509 24 1989
17 Cmilyte, Viktorija g LTU 2506 7 1983
18 Krush, Irina m USA 2502 0 1983

Incredible Natural Phenomenon - The Birds Make Giant Bird in the Sky

Hola darlings!  For those of you who celebrated Thanksgiving Day yesterday, I hope you had a wonderful time with family and friends, feasting and drinking to excess :)

Check this out!  This is one of the most awesome things I've ever seen -- wish I could see it in person!!!

Starling murmurations create fantastic show in Scottish sky

Paul Bunyard films the poetry-in-motion spectacle of nature, puts it to music

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Meretites and Kahai, Pyramid Age Love Story

Pyramid Age love story comes to life in Egyptian tomb's vivid color

Oh Pooh, Not a Curse After All

So much for the curse of the mummy and all that, ha!  I do rather wish the cause of the movement would not have been so easy to figure out...


Vibrations rotate Manchester Museum's ancient statue

Traffic and footsteps caused an ancient Egyptian statue to rotate inside its glass case, an investigation has found.

Curators at Manchester Museum were left baffled when a time lapse video caught the 10ins (25cm) high stone statue, which dates back to 1,800 BC, moving.

Vibrations expert Steve Gosling placed a specialist three-axis sensor under Neb-Senu's glass cabinet to record its movement over 24 hours.

He said the convex base of the figure made it "more susceptible" to rotate.

Visitor footfall
The sensor revealed traffic and footfall vibrations at busy times of the day, such as 18:00 GMT and 07:00 GMT, caused the statue to rotate.

Mr Gosling, of 24 Acoustics engineering noise consultancy, said: "The vibration is a combination of multiple sources so there's buses outside on the busy road, there's footfall activity."

Movement ceased overnight.

"There's a lump at the bottom which makes it more susceptible to vibrations than the others which have a flat base," Mr Gosling added

Before the test, Egyptology curator Annie Garnett said various theories had been advanced ranging from vibration caused by nearby traffic to visitor footfall.

The statue was donated to the museum by a private collector in 1933.

Testing was undertaken for ITV's Mystery Map series which investigates myths and mysterious stories.

2013 Brno Open

The 2013 Brno (Czech Republic) Open took place November 16 - 23, 2013.  Here are the final standings - a chess femme took clear first place. I saw this reported at The Week in Chess through the early rounds, tournament results at Chess-Results dot com

Konečné pořadí po 9 kolech

Poř.St.č. JménoTyppohlavíSkup.FEDRtgFIDERtgNBody PH 1  PH 2  PH 3 Krtg+/-
16
WIMAbdumalik ZhansayaU16wFKAZ231107.540.551.561530.3
22
FMKantans TomsFLAT241206.540.552.5510-3.8
33
FMKojima ShinyaFJPN236406.540.051.5515-2.7
47
FMBurdalev KirillFUKR228006.539.551.051510.6
512
WIMSemenova ElenawFRUS217706.539.049.061518.6
61
IMPlat VojtechFCZE247206.537.549.5510-1.7
75
IMStrebkovs AndrejsFLAT232406.537.547.0410-4.0
814
Tsenov TsvetoslavFBUL213406.532.041.551515.9
913
Kearns ChristopherFGER215806.039.049.051515.6
1017
Tesar JanFCZE207206.036.045.551513.8
1110
Golcman EvgenyS60FRUS220906.032.041.5515-17.3
1211
Blahynka MartinU16FCZE218805.540.551.53152.7
1315
Ben-Natan YigalFISR208405.536.547.54156.0
35
Chan NarunawFRUS184805.536.547.541545.3
1516
Grove MichaelFSCO207805.536.046.55155.1
169
FMVorobyov YrijS60FUKR222605.535.546.0415-26.1
174
IMChudinovskikh Alexander M.FRUS233405.534.043.5510-22.4
1819
FMSpodny JosefS60FCZE201405.530.038.5215-5.1
198
IMPiankov EvgenijS60FUKR226405.042.053.5410-4.9
2020
Kotva MilanS60FCZE199605.034.043.0415-6.3
2137
Kreyssig BrunoU16FGER183705.033.543.541522.6
2221
Tabola MarcinFPOL199005.033.540.53150.4
2344
Kosina VladimirS60FCZE177505.032.041.031517.5
2422
Vesely JaromirFCZE195205.032.040.5315-26.3
2518
Bakalar JanS60FSVK204805.031.541.0415-15.3
34
Fowler DavidFSCO185905.031.541.04157.8
2745
Zikan KarelS60FCZE177405.029.536.531517.4
2832
Veznik MichaelFCZE187404.536.546.54153.3
2931
Saroun RadekFCZE187504.536.546.03151.4
3033
Simo MarianU16FSVK187304.535.545.02150.0
3127
Kopecek IvanS60FCZE191204.535.045.041512.1
3236
Kucera JanFCZE184404.534.544.023011.7
3328
Pultorak JanU16FPOL190804.533.041.0415-0.8
3423
Lintner FelixFAUT194304.532.041.5330-36.6
3526
Lages Karl-HeinzFGER191704.530.539.03300.0
3642
Chapman NigelFSCO178904.530.538.5315-0.2
3757
Oglaza OskarU16FPOL157204.529.538.031542.8
3866
Vanicek LukasNCZE016924.529.537.04
3960
Glacner KarelS60FCZE155404.526.033.041534.7
4039
Volna LukasU16FSVK181504.033.544.021518.5
4124
Stanek StanislavFCZE194104.033.043.5315-17.7
4225
Al-Dhabbi FaresFYEM193904.033.042.0315-21.3
4340
Hrdlicka VladanFCZE180504.032.042.5430-13.2
4469
Kaplan Milan*CZE012504.031.039.03
4541
Stary VladimirFCZE179404.030.039.0215-12.0
4648
Veselsky JanACZE169504.028.537.53153.2
4751
Baraniuk AndrejS60FUKR167304.027.035.53159.3
4843
Feldvabl VilemS60FCZE177904.026.034.0315-7.5
4950
Romanek ZdenekFCZE167504.026.033.5415-4.3
5067
Kan VojtechNCZE016644.025.531.53
5153
Rezny FrantisekFCZE162304.022.028.5215-13.5
5229
Paulik MartinFCZE190303.528.538.0315-11.4
5358
Bata JiriFCZE156803.528.536.533021.6
5447
Doskar MiloslavS60FCZE174303.032.040.5315-4.8
5538
Zejda KarelS60FCZE182503.030.037.5315-32.0
5664
Klimina NinaS60wFRUS134503.029.037.533063.6
5754
Potapova TatianawFRUS162203.028.036.02159.4
5852
Kaeding WolfgangS60FGER165903.027.535.5230-27.9
5962
Koci TerezaU16wFCZE143903.025.031.031525.0
6068
Kaeding DieterS60*GER012503.023.029.52
6159
Mach MichalFCZE155903.022.028.5015-0.9
6265
Kacalek TomasNCZE017602.530.038.02
6355
Sojka OldrichS60FCZE160702.527.534.51150.0
6446
Hruby VaclavS60FCZE174602.524.032.0115-47.8
6561
Zlamal ZdenekS60FCZE151802.523.029.5015-8.9
6663
Richterova JulieU16wFCZE143902.521.528.01150.6
6756
Vlajkov MilenkoS60FGER160002.021.528.5030-74.1
6830
Horyna JosefS60FCZE187801.025.533.01150.0
6949
Strnad JiriS60FCZE168301.024.032.5130-50.7
Poznámka:
Pomocné hodnocení1: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)
Pomocné hodnocení2: Buchholz Tie-Breaks (variabel with parameter)
Pomocné hodnocení3: The greater number of victories

23rd World Senior Women's Chess Championship

Holy Hathor!  GM Nona Gaprindashvili played in a simul during this event on November 23 - say what!  Yep, she played!  I sure wish this event had received more publicity, for she is one of the great female chessplayers of our time. I don't know the details or her results, alas.  Link. 

Oh oh - guess what, in the minute or so it took me to write this here, the link and my comment on Facebook have magically disappeared.  So, did she play this simul, or did she not?  Guess not?

This Championship took place November 11 - 24, 2013, in Opatija, Croatia.  World Women's Senior Chess Champion is WFM Yelena Ankudinova, who looks young enough to be my daughter. EEK!  Just how "old" does one have to be to qualify for the female world chess championship, heh?

WFM Yelena Ankudinova.
Senior?  Yeah, right! She just needs
to diet and exercise.

Here is the complete final cross-table for the women's event, and GM Nona Gaprindashvili finished in 2nd place overall:

Rk.SNo  NameTypsexFEDRtgIPts. TB1  TB2  TB3 Rpnwwew-weKrtg+/-
19 WFMAnkudinova YelenaS50wKAZ21217.00.033.00.02287975.031.971529.5
21 GMGaprindashvili NonaS50wGEO23126.50.031.00.0218396.57.27-0.7710-7.7
35 WGMKhmiadashvili TamarS50wGEO21586.00.034.50.02241964.971.031515.4
43 WGMFatalibekova ElenaS50wRUS22526.00.031.00.02229966.20-0.2015-3.0
54 WIMMiednikova SwietlanaS50wRUS21666.00.030.50.02236965.070.931513.9
62 WGMStrutinskaya Galina NS50wRUS22996.00.027.00.02162967.15-1.1515-17.3
711 WFMBogumil TatianaS50wRUS20745.50.531.00.0218995.53.781.721525.8
813 WFMKhropova LarisaS50wRUS20095.50.530.00.0208584.53.031.471522.0
98 WIMMelashvili NinoS50wGEO21265.00.029.00.02124843.930.07151.0
1017  Baliuniene MargaritaS50wLTU18855.00.025.00.02057841.912.091531.4
1110 WIMBeltz MartinaS50wGER21005.00.024.50.01900845.42-1.4215-21.3
127 WIMLauterbach IngridS50wENG21325.00.023.00.01892734.34-1.3415-20.1
1314 WFMKierzek MiraS50wMKD20055.00.022.00.01974955.20-0.2015-3.0
1415 CMMilligan HelenS50wNZL19774.50.022.50.0192883.53.52-0.0215-0.3
1518  Khalturina TatianaS50wRUS18234.50.021.00.0193183.52.660.841512.6
1612 WFMBeliaeva NataliaS50wRUS20274.50.016.50.01827733.94-0.9415-14.1
176 WIMTitorenko Natalia IS50wRUS21434.00.026.50.01897835.04-2.0415-30.6
1819  Milashevskaja ValentinaS50wRUS18144.00.020.00.01810721.630.37155.6
1916  Kabanova IrinaS50wRUS19514.00.019.50.0180372.53.15-0.6515-9.8
2024  Catania Hannelore JS50wUSA04.00.018.00.0183883    
2121  Hoose HanneloreS50wGER17404.00.016.50.01702632.310.691510.4
2225  Pelias MarilynS50wUSA03.00.017.00.0166382    
2320  Korneeva TamaraS50wRUS17572.51.011.50.0151771.52.75-1.2515-18.8
2423  Arginbayeva MaryanaS50wKAZ15182.50.012.50.0152470.51.15-0.6530-19.5
2522  Afanasieva ElenaS50wRUS16252.00.012.00.01410611.55-0.5515-8.3

There were two players from the USA - Hannelore J. Catania, who does not have a FIDE rating.  She finished in 20th place overall with 4.0.  Finishing in 22nd place was Marilyn Pelias, also no FIDE rating, with 3.0.  I commend the fighting spirit of both of these chess femmes, hooray! 

Women's prizes:

Position Prize(€) Additional reward 
1
1.100,00trophy and gold medal
2
800,00silver medal
3
600,00bronze medal
4
500,00 
5
400,00 
6
300,00 
7
200,00 
6
100,00 
Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...