European Women's Championship: three players on top

by ChessBase
3/17/2009 – On her birthday Iweta Rajlich, wife of Rybka programmer Vasik Rajlich, made herself a special gift: she defeated Nino Khurtsidze and joined Hungarian GM Hoang Thanh Trang in the lead. Salome Melia also won her game and made it a threesome. Eleven players follow half a point behind. We bring you results and games, new videos by Europe Echecs and a pictorial report by Elena Mikheeva.

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10th European Individual Women's Championship,
Saint Petersburg 2009

The 10th European Individual Women's Chess Championship is taking place from March 7 – 21, 2009, in Saint Petersburg, Russia. The venue is the Park Inn Pulkovskaya Hotel (Pobedy or Victory Square 1) in a huge Soviet style playing hall. The players are in two different rooms, downstairs the top 20 boards, with their games broadcast live on the Internet (thanks to Evgeny Tkachiev), and upstairs the rest of the players. The rate of play is 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move number one. The prize fund is 87,500 Euros, with € 10,000 going to the winner, € 7500 for second place, € 6000 € for third, etc., with € 1000 going to the twentieth place.

Report after round eight

Hungarian GM Hoang Thanh Trang was in the sole lead after seven rounds, but an eighth round draw against Natalija Pogonina allowed two other players to join her at the top of the table. IM Salome Melia defeated WGM Tatiana Grabuzova, and IM Iweta Rajlich beat IM Nino Khurtsidze, so that now three players share the same score of 6.5/8 points. Iweta, who is the wife of Rybka programmer IM Vasik Rajlich, achieved this on her birthday on Monday.

Top standings after eight rounds (5.0/8 and higher)

# Player Pts Nat. Rtng Perf
1 IM Melia, Salome 6.5 GEO 2422 2606
2 GM Hoang Thanh Trang 6.5 HUN 2483 2634
3 IM Rajlich, Iweta 6.5 POL 2399 2595
4 GM Socko, Monika 6.0 POL 2449 2577
5 IM Mkrtchian, Lilit 6.0 ARM 2460 2566
6 IM Kovalevskaya, Ekat. 6.0 RUS 2442 2542
7 IM Foisor, Cristina-Adela 6.0 ROU 2412 2550
8 WGM Shadrina, Tatiana 6.0 RUS 2416 2561
9 WGM Kovanova, Baira 6.0 RUS 2386 2533
10 WGM Pogonina, Natalija 6.0 RUS 2467 2525
11 IM Lomineishvili, Maia 6.0 GEO 2437 2504
12 WFM Bodnaruk, Anastasia 6.0 RUS 2384 2531
13 IM Dworakowska, Joanna 6.0 POL 2352 2462
14 WFM Severiukhina, Zoja 6.0 RUS 2327 2419
15 GM Dzagnidze, Nana 5.5 GEO 2518 2509
16 GM Lahno, Kateryna 5.5 UKR 2488 2490
17 IM Khurtsidze, Nino 5.5 GEO 2421 2509
18 WGM Zawadzka, Jolanta 5.5 POL 2385 2467
19 WGM Demina, Julia 5.5 RUS 2361 2432
20 IM Khukhashvili, Sopiko 5.5 GEO 2416 2461
 
21 IM Ushenina, Anna 5.5 UKR 2499 2484
22 IM Arakhamia-Grant, Ket. 5.5 SCO 2500 2484
23 IM Muzychuk, Anna 5.5 SLO 2540 2448
24 WGM Grabuzova, Tatiana 5.5 RUS 2332 2437
25 IM Turova, Irina 5.5 RUS 2379 2456
26 IM Kosintseva, Tatiana 5.5 RUS 2497 2449
27 WGM Romanko, Marina 5.5 RUS 2451 2470
28 IM Muzychuk, Mariya 5.5 UKR 2427 2421
29 WIM Majdan, Joanna 5.5 POL 2351 2422
30 IM Ovod, Evgenija 5.0 RUS 2430 2421
31 WIM Iljushina, Olga 5.0 RUS 2269 2447
32 WGM Nebolsina, Vera 5.0 RUS 2312 2383
33 IM Paehtz, Elisabeth 5.0 GER 2455 2404
34 WFM Girya, Olga 5.0 RUS 2315 2416
35 WGM Cherednichenko, Svet. 5.0 UKR 2367 2404
36 WIM Solovjova, Valentina 5.0 RUS 2324 2348
37 WIM Guramishvili, Sopiko 5.0 GEO 2281 2416
38 WIM Kharashuta, Ekaterina 5.0 RUS 2304 2318
39 WFM Malgina, Tatiana 5.0 RUS 2342 2383
40 WGM Aginian, Nelly 5.0 ARM 2335 2373
41 WIM Chasovnikova, Eugenia 5.0 RUS 2302 2348

Player portraits by Elena Mikheeva

The following pictures were kindly provided by Elena Mikheeva, who is the wife of tournament director Vladimir Bykov and a very good friend of our previous photo reporter, WGM Irina Sudakova. Both are working in the press center of the European Women's Championship in Saint Petersburg. We have sorted the pictures according to the standings after round eight. Under each picture you see the standings, the player (with FIDE title), nationality, rating, points and performance.

# Player Pts Nat. Rtng Perf

1 IM Melia, Salome 6.5 GEO 2422 2606

2 GM Hoang Thanh Trang 6.5 HUN 2483 2634

3 IM Rajlich, Iweta 6.5 POL 2399 2595

7 IM Foisor, Cristina-Adela 6.0 ROU 2412 2550

8 WGM Shadrina, Tatiana 6.0 RUS 2416 2561

16 GM Lahno, Kateryna 5.5 UKR 2488 2490

19 WGM Demina, Julia 5.5 RUS 2361 2432

22 IM Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan 5.5 SCO 2500 2484

23 IM Muzychuk, Anna 5.5 SLO 2540 2448

28 IM Muzychuk, Mariya 5.5 UKR 2427 2421

33 IM Paehtz, Elisabeth 5.0 GER 2455 2404

97 WFM Styazhkina, Anna 4.0 RUS 1926 2154

96 WFM Yakovich, Yuliya 4.0 RUS 2125 2170

107 WIM Kirillova, Varvara 3.5 RUS 2246 2228

115 WFM Korchagina, Viktoria 3.5 RUS 2187 2085


The start of a round at the European Women's Championship


The playing venue with round eight under way


Arbiters Ruslana Mochalova and Elizabeth Polihroniade


Video reports by Europe Echecs

The video reports are by GM Robert Fontaine and the Europe Echecs team. They give us a unique view of the tournament, with daily wrap-ups and atmosphere reports. Robert is reporting, while his wife Kateryna Lahno is playing in the tournament.

Links

The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.


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