The Women's World Blitz Chess Championship 2012 begins in Batumi, Georgia within a few hours today and you can watch all the action live at the official website of the event: http://e2e4.ge/index.html. Fifty players are taking part including India's Koneru Humpy who is the second seed and Harika Dronavalli who is seeded ninth. Top seed is Anna Muzychuk of Slovakia.
You could win a copy of the latest Black and White Chess Magazine or a special chess gift this week if you could tell us to whom does the following chess quote belong and when he said it, or to whom! Send your entries along with your address to editor@blackandwhiteindia.com before June 10.
"If I win a tournament, I win it by myself. I do the playing. Nobody helps me. If you don't win, it's not a great tragedy - the worst that happens is that you lose a game."
Even as World Chess Champion India's Viswanathan Anand and his Challenger Israel's Boris Gelfand get home to grand welcomes, chess videos are being watched by thousands on YouTube. We just picked Sunday's top 3 chess videos with most number of views - relating to the Anand, Gelfand 2012 World Title Match.
The first video is about Gelfand landing at Ben Gurion Airport, the second is about Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu watching Game 12 of the Anand-Gelfand match, and main sponsor of the World Chess Championship Andrey Filatov speaking about future chess sponsorship plans.
You might also like to read one of our previous Anand, Gelfand World Chess 2012 Match post: Who Is Andrey Filatov?
Bulgaria's former women's world chess champion has won the Batumi Women's World Rapid Championship with another former women's world chess champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk, winning the silver. India's Koneru Humpy, the challenger to the women's world chess champion title, finished a creditable third. India's other player, Harika Dronavalli, finished with a great show at sixth place.
The Women’s World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2012 was held from May 30 to June 6 at the Sheraton Hotel, Batumi, Georgia. It was an 11 rounds Swiss tournament with time control 25 mins + 10 sec per move. Every woman chess player with an elo of 2500+ in one of the official FIDE rating lists as well as all former World Chess Champions and Olympic Chess Champions had the right to participate in the Championship.
Watch this post-game interview with the US Women's chess Champion 2012 IM Irina Krush. Krush went into a tiebreak with defending champion Anna Zatonskih at the US Women's Chess Championship recently.
You can also watch the video of the US Men's Chess Champion 2012 Hikaru Nakamura here.
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.