Top seed Khotenashvili wins Georgian Women Championship

Georgian Women Championship 2012

These were the players taking part in the championship, which was staged for the second time in Anaklia, Georgia:

And this is the way the tournament ended:

Final standings (after eleven rounds of play)

• Round-by-round pairings with results

Top seed and new Georgian Women's Champion IM Bela Khotenashvili, rated 2490, who scored 8.0/11 points, one more than her nearest rival. Bela is 23 years old, a philologist specialising in the English language. She is married and has a little daughter named Marya.

Second place: 18-year-old WIM Meri Arabidze, an 18-year-old very talented school-girl, led for much of the event, but collapsed in the last three rounds.

In third place: WGM Nino Batsiashvili, rated 2436, 25 years old. Nino is a telecommunications engineer, lives by the sea shore and the loves the sea. Her hobbies are reading, chatting and horror movies.

The three winners: Meri Arabidze, IM Bela Khotenashvili and WGM Nino Batsiashvili

Fourth: IM Nazi Paikidze, rated 2406. Her first name, typical Georgian, is incidentally pronounced Nah-zee and should not scare anyone. Her parents, who are teachers, worked in Irkutsk but moved to Tbilisi when Nazi was four years old, and in 2006 to Moscow. She learnt chess when she was five. Since 2009 Nazi is engaged to GM Vladimir Belov. she is still a student and loves shopping and cheerful company.

Fifth place: WGM Salome Melia, 25 years old, rated 2410. Salome is a lawyer who likes chess and to play musical instruments.

IM Maia Lomineishvili is and IM rated 2366, 34 years old, a journalist by profession, married with a son named George. She is a fan of Latin American dance. Sopiko is and expert on international relationship and diplomacy. She loves poetry and billiards.

WFM Madona Bokuchava, rated 2058, is 21 years old and a philologist, specialising in Romanic languages. She is fond of good food and loves spending time with friends.

WGM Inga Charkhalashvili, 29, rated 2334, is an Economist who loves gold ornaments and detective movies.

WIM Inga Khurtsilava, 37, rated 2286, is a chess coach. She is married, has two sons, and dreams of traveling to Israel.

IM Sopiko Khukhashvili, 27 years old, rated 2408, is and expert on international relationship and diplomacy. She loves poetry and billiards.

Press officer of the Georgian Chess Federation Sopho Nikoladze, from whom we received the above pictures and exemplary information on the players. Sopho is a journalist and economist who loves to travel and make new acquaintances. Oh, yes, she is also a Women's International Master rated 2203.

Previous article (with more portraits)

Georgian Women Championship 2012 05.05.2012 – This strong event is being staged in the beautiful Black Sea costal town of Anaklia – a name that translates to "Ana is crying" (explained in our report). The press officer of the championship, WIM Sopho Nikoladze, has sent us some lovely pictures and, thankfully, full captions that acquaint us to the players. We can only share half of them in our current report – the rest will follow soon.

Links Official tournament site All available games in PGN The games were broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.

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