First World Women's Team Chess Championship 2007, Russia

This event is taking place from May 19 to 30 in Ekaterinburg, Russia, with women's teams from ten national federations – smong them Russia, Ukraine, China, Armenia, Georgia, Netherlands, Poland and Vietnam – participating. The venue is the five-star Atrium Palace Hotel, where the teams are also staying.

The town of Yekaterinburg – which is usually romanized to Ekaterinburg, is located on the eastern side of the Ural mountains and is the main industrial and cultural center of the Urals Federal District. Its population well over one a million makes it Russia's fifth largest city. It was founded in 1721 by Vasily Tatischev and named after Saint Catherine, the namesake of Tsar Peter the Great's wife Empress Catherine I (Yekaterina).

Yekaterinburg is famous for its theaters, like the Academic Ballet and Opera, the Sverdlovsk Academic Theater of Musical Comedy and the Academic Dramatic Theater. The city is the center of New Drama movement of contemporary Russian playwrites, and is also the capital of contemporary dance. There are more than 30 museums in Yekaterinburg.

House of governor of Yekaterinburg, built in the early 19th century

Participants

At the grand opening ceremony the participants and guests of the championship were treated to a laser show, performance by acrobats, etc. Present were the Governor of the Sverdlovsk region, Eduard Rossel and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov.

A cement truck arrives for the ceremonial laying of a foundation stone...

... for a new Chess Academy to be built in Yekaterinburg

Gala opening ceremony of the Women's Team Championship

A Ural singer on the stage with the Championship logo in the background

The world of chess – traced by a laser beam

Round one – 20.5.2007

In the first round of the championship China beat Vietnam resoundingly with 3.5-0.5. The Russian team easily won against the Germans with a 3-1 score. Tatyana Kosintseva and Nadezhda Kosintseva drew against Elizabeth Pähtz and Ketino Kachiani-Gersinska; Ekaterina Korbut beat Jessika Nill and Ekaterina Kovalevskaya beat Maria Schöne.

Ekaterina Korbut, playing for Russia

The encounter Ukraine vs Armenia was a seven-hour battle, which the Ukraine team won 3-1. Maya Chiburdanidze won her game for the Georgian team, which beat the Czechs 2.5-1.5. Poland curshed Botswana 4-0. There were no drawn matches in the first round, which confirms that we are in for uncompromised battles of other rounds.

Maia Chiburdannidze playing Jana Jackova in Georgia vs Czech Republic

Round two – 21.5.2007

The second round saw the probably key encounter of the entire tournament. In an eight-hour struggle the Chinese team produced an unprecedented 4-0 whitewash of their Russian opponents!

WGM Shen Yang, rated 2440, playing on board four for China

Nobody could have anticipated such a result. The Russian team decided not to field its most experienced player, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, and to try a new team composition: Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva, Ekaterina Korbut and Elena Tairova. After the opening it was clear that there would be long struggles on all four boards. On board three Ekaterina Korbut managed to outplay Ruan Lufei and get good chances to win. But she wasn’t able to increase the advantage consistantly. A couple of mistakes lead to the worsening of her position and finally Ekaterina lost. After that bad things happened with the rest of the Russian team. The loss of Elena Tairova was a pity. At first she had a bad position, then she not only equalised but managed to win an extra pawn. As compensation Chinese Huang Qian had a good central piece in the endgame. During the sixth hour Tairova made a mistake and the centralization of the opponent turned into an advantage. The Chinese player promoted a pawn, for which Tairova had to give a piece together with the game. The Kosintseva sisters did not put up much resistance, and in the end the meeting of the two biggest opponents finished with a “dry victory" for the Chinese team.

13-year-old Hou Yifan beat Nadezhda Kosintseva with black

In the rest of the games of the second round there were small surprises. For instance the Armenian team, which is considered to be one of the favourites for the medals, lost to the team of Vietnam 1.5-2.5. Poland beat Germany 3:1, after a five-hour battle. The match between Georgia and Botswana ended earlier than any other match – the Georgian team won 4:0, even without the participation of their top player Maya Chiburdanidze. She had a day off today.

Round 2 – 21.5.2007

Links

• Official web site
• All games available so far (PGN)