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The tournament is over, the winner in the end was Anna Zatonskih of the USA, half a point clear of her nearest rival, former world champion Zhu Chen from China. A point behind Zhu we find Irina Krush (also USA) and then Nebolsina, Hou and Skripchenko. Behind Almira there is a large gap, with the rest of the girls ending up with 4.0 down to 2.0 points.
Once again we are able to bring you some of the games. For many encounters the gamescores are not available. The entries in the attached database have the correct result, which allows us to generate the final cross table.
"Ni hao" is hello in Chinese, "Xie xie" is thank you. Although the players at this World Ladies Tournament have been fighting tough battles on the board they had a great time outside the tournament hall as well. The incredible Chinese hospitality made up for any weariness brought on by chess.
The entrance to the Confucius temple, where we spent two hours
On the last Sunday the organisers arranged a fantastic sight-seeing trip to Jining, the famous tourist city of China. It is the seat of the Torch Group, which is the main sponsor of Chinese League, which if you remember will start on April 20. The Ladies Tournament was organised to promote the Chinese League.
The chess ladies with the owner of the Torch Group, who is standing between
the winner and runner-up in the tournament, Anna Zatonskih and Zhu Chen.
A grandmother and grandson pray in front of the holy fire
A cheerful stone turtle (or something)
A thousand-year-old temple building made only of wood (no nails)
Inside the temple
Another temple building
... visited by tournament winner Anna Zatonskih
Shirin Navabi capturing memories to take home on tape
Top Chinese players Ye Jiangchuan and Zhu Chen
Everybody smile! In front of the Torch Group headquarters
Vera Nebolsina and Zhu Chen with the company's owner
Irina Krush gets a beautiful carved chopsticks set
Zhu Chen and Irina Krush pose on the owner's Ferrari
...but take a more conservative form of transportation in Jining
Anna Zatonskih in front of the Chinese Garden on the fifth floor of the
building
Veronika Schneider of Hungary with a Chinese friend
The other Veronika (Machalova of Slovakia) relaxing
Group photo with the sponsor in the restaurant. Xie Xie for
a wonderful day.
A final set of pictures from the closing ceremony is to follow. We will try to get hold of more (all?) games before we put them up.
