The ACP Womens Cup Rapid is taking place in Tbilisi, Georgia, from February 17th to 21st February, 2012. Top seeds are Anna Muzychuk (2580), Kateryna Lahno (2557) and Nadezhda (2537) and Tatiana Kosintseva (2513), Nana Dzagnidze (2535) and former women's world champion Maia Chiburdanidze (2500). The event is a twelve player all-play-all. The official website and Playchess are providing live broadcast of the games, the former has in addition streaming video, interviews and live commentary by Mark Dvoretsky.
The event carries a prize fund of US $40,000, of which $10,000 goes to the winner. It is sponsored by SOCAR Energy Georgia, and organised by the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP) and the Georgian Chess Federation.
After two days and five rounds of play GM Anna Muzychuk is in the lead, with just one draw and a 2861 performance. Anna, who celebrates her 22nd birthday in a week (Feb. 28th) is originally from Ukraine but has played for Slovenia since 2004.
We got to know Anna as a talented 13-year-old playing at the Chess Olympiad in
Calvia, 2004. We did a story about her and her sister Mariya in the same year.
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Round three | ||||
|
GM |
Muzychuk Anna |
1-0 |
GM |
Dzagnidze Nana |
|
WGM |
Mamedjarova Zeinab |
0-1 |
GM |
Kosintseva Nadezhda |
|
GM |
Cmilyte Viktorija |
1-0 |
IM |
Zatonskih Anna |
|
GM |
Lahno Kateryna |
½-½ |
GM |
Chiburdanidze Maia |
|
GM |
Kosintseva Tatiana |
1-0 |
GM |
Stefanova Antoaneta |
|
GM |
Cramling Pia |
½-½ |
GM |
Kosteniuk Alexandra |
|
Round four | ||||
|
GM |
Dzagnidze Nana |
1-0 |
GM |
Kosteniuk Alexandra |
|
GM |
Stefanova Antoaneta |
0-1 |
GM |
Cramling Pia |
|
GM |
Chiburdanidze Maia |
½-½ |
GM |
Kosintseva Tatiana |
|
IM |
Zatonskih Anna |
0-1 |
GM |
Lahno Kateryna |
|
GM |
Kosintseva Nadezhda |
1-0 |
GM |
Cmilyte Viktorija |
|
GM |
Muzychuk Anna |
1-0 |
WGM |
Mamedjarova Zeinab |
|
Round five | ||||
|
WGM |
Mamedjarova Zeinab |
0-1 |
GM |
Dzagnidze Nana |
|
GM |
Cmilyte Viktorija |
½-½ |
GM |
Muzychuk Anna |
|
GM |
Lahno Kateryna |
½-½ |
GM |
Kosintseva Nadezhda |
|
GM |
Kosintseva Tatiana |
0-1 |
IM |
Zatonskih Anna |
|
GM |
Cramling Pia |
½-½ |
GM |
Chiburdanidze Maia |
|
GM |
Kosteniuk Alexandra |
½-½ |
GM |
Stefanova Antoaneta |
Viktorija Cmilyte pondering her 13th move against IM Anna Zatonskih in round three
GM Anna Muzychuk vs GM Nana Dzagnidze in round three
Former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova against GM Pia Cramling
Former world champion Maia Chiburdanidze (1978 to 1991) in equal second
Viktorija Čmilytė, Lithuanian GM with 1.5/5 (+1, =1, –3) and a 2383 performance
Former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk with 2.0/5 and a 2453 performance
GM Pia Cramling of Sweden at 4.0/5 with a 2744 performance
We are going to assume that is not high proof vodka, Katya!
Kateryna Lahno is in second place with a 2743 performance
IM Anna Zatonskih of the US in eighth place with 2.0/5
Russian GM Tatiana Kosintseva stands to lose eleven rating points
Down in the dumps: Zeinab Mamedjarova has lost all games so
far. Incidentally that is a full fox skin the Azeri WGM is wearing.
26 years later: Maia Chiburdanidze playing on the same table she defended her women's world championship title against Elena Akhmilovskaya in Sofia in 1986, winning the match by 8½–5½. Chiburdanidze was world champion from 1978 to 1991 and defended her title four times (in 1981 she drew a tough match 8–8 against Nana Alexandria but kept the title as champion). In the above game she drew Kateryna Lahno in 32 moves.
The great Nana Alexandria of Georgia, twice women's world championship challenger (in 1975 and 1981, when she drew Maia Chiburdanidze +4 =8 –4) and one of the contributing players of the USSR team that dominated the women's Olympiads of the 1980s. Alexandria has been called a Pillar of Women's Chess and has done more for women's chess than anyone we could name offhand. She is conducting video interviews in Tbilisi, as you can see below.
Reflections: official tournament commentator Mark Dvoretsky
Photos by Anastasiya Karlovich for the official web site
The opening ceremony – with beautiful music and dance presentation by children
Interview with Alexandra Kosteniuk, conducted by Nana Alexandria
| February 20 | 6th Round | 15:00 |
| February 20 | 7th Round | 16:30 |
| February 20 | 8th Round | 18:00 |
| February 21 | 9th Round | 14:00 |
| February 21 | 10th Round | 15:30 |
| February 21 | 11th Round | 17:00 |
| February 21 | Tie-break | 18:00 |
| February 21 | Closing Ceremony | 20:00 |
| February 22 | Departure |
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 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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