Tatiana Kosintseva wins Russian Championship

Russian Women's Championship in Kazan

The Russian Women Chess Championship was played from 28 June to 11 July in Kazan, the capital of Tatarstan in central Russia. Kazan is the town from which Alisa Galliamova hails.

This year the tournament gathered the best Russian players, including Alexandra Kosteniuk, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Svetlana Matveeva.

The women's championship was an 11 round all-play-all, which is a novelty in the history of the Russian female championships. This also applies to the prize fund of about $50,000. The event was covered live on the Internet.

The 2004 Russian Women's Champion Tatiana Kosintseva

The title of Russian Women's Chess Champion was won by 18-year-old Tatiana Kosintseva, who scored 8.5 points in 11 games. Half a point behind her we find the European Women's Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. One and a half points below her is Tatiana's sister Nadezhda Kosintseva. Local star Alisa Galliamova was 4-5 with six points, while many-time women's champion of the USSR and Russia, Svetlana Matveeva, scored a very disappointing 3.5 points to finish at the end of the table.

• All games in PGN
• Illustrated 4th round report (with pictures of all participants)

	Local star Alisa Galliamova in front of a poster promoting the Russian Women's Championship – the first held as a full round robin with an unprecedented $50,000 prize fund.
	The Kosintseva sisters visiting the Raif Monastery in Kazan
	The two sisters in the Raif Monastary, where women are not allowed in jeans or slacks (a cloth wrap is provided) or with uncovered heads.
	Out of historical interest: Ivan Vasilevich Groznyi ("Ivan the Terrible"), who was crowned first Czar of Russia in 1547, conquered Kazan in 1552 and built the famous St. Basil's Cathedral on the Red Square in Moscow to commemorate this conquest.

A simultaneous exhibition by GM Andrei Kharlov, who returned to Kazan, where he lives, after his loss to Topalov in round five of the FIDE world championship in Tripoli.

Kharlov's wife Elena Zaiatz. After her husband had returned to Kazan she scored 2.5 points in three games.

The Kosintseva sisters Tatiana and Nadezhda

Links

The links in this purely Russian language site are in red and translate to the following: 54 RUSSIAN WOMEN CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP Super final – 28 June -11 July, Kazan ONLINE-broadcast Rules List of participants Table Results: 1 round, 2 round, 3 round, 4 round, 5 round Parings: 6 round, round, 8 round, 9 round, 10 round, 11 round Photo reports: opening ceremony, 30 June, 1 July Games in PGN: 1 round, 2 round, 3 round, 4 round, 5 round