Winning starts with what you know
The new version 18 offers completely new possibilities for chess training and analysis: playing style analysis, search for strategic themes, access to 6 billion Lichess games, player preparation by matching Lichess games, download Chess.com games with built-in API, built-in cloud engine and much more.
The
Ukrainian Women's Championship took place in Odessa from 26 November –
6 December 2006. It was all-play-all with 12 players. The organisers from the
Bank Pivdennyi (who will also host the ACP Rapid World Cup in January) hoped
that all the strongest country's female grandmasters would compete. One of
them, Katya Lahno, preferred to take part in the men's knockout championship
in Poltava. (She was defeated in the first round by GM Drozdovskij in tiebreak
games, despite winning the first of two classical games).
Thus, main favourites in Odessa were three other champions of the 2006 Olympiad, i.e. Natalia Zhukova, Inna Gaponenko and Anna Ushenina. Surprisingly, none of them won the championship. WGM Oksana Vozovic from Nikolaev, who is now studying in the Kharkov Law Academy and is also a kickboxing fighter (a medalist of the country junior championship in karate) took the gold medal. Oksana scored the same number of points as Ushenina, but the tiebreak parameters favoured Vozovic.
The
new champion has taken silver medals three times at the European and world
junior championships. She won several international tournaments, including
the Rector's Cup in Kharkov earlier this year. Vozovik's coach in Nikolaev
is IM Andrei Rakhmangulov, but she also mentioned the directors of her Nikolaev
and Kharkov chess clubs and the rector of the Kharkov Law Academy as those
who are also responsible for her successes.
Vozovic still did not make a professional choice between chess, laws and kickboxing. As she said, she is trying to be successful at everything. The third place was taken by WGM Natalja Zdebskaja, while the favourites Gaponenko and Zhukova finished only fourth and fifth, respectively. The latter, however has a reasonable excuse for her mediocre performance...
The winner: Oksana Vozovic from Nikolaev
The 50 years jubilee of the Ukrainian women's team coach, the Odessa GM Viacheslav Eingorn was celebrated during the tournament. Eingorn, who led the Ukrainian team to the victory in Torino, received gifts from the tournament organisers, the federation officials and from the players of his team as well.
GM Viacheslav Eingorn is congratulated on his 50th birthday by the Ukrainian
women's team during the opening ceremony in the Mozart Hotel
The organisation of the championship was assessed by its winner, Vozovic, as excellent. She nevertheless added that there was not enough food in the sanatorium Belaya Akazya, where the participants lived, because she is using to eat as much as two men combined.
The main awards – with money prizes added on
The President of the Ukrainian Chess Federation Viktor Petrov
The Chairman of the Bank Pivdennyi, Vadim Morokhovskiy and the President
of the Ukrainian Chess Federation posing together with the winner Oksana Vozovic
Top seed Natalia Zhukova, 2456, finished fifth
Vadim Morokhovskiy prepared many special prizes
Closing ceremony, during the playing of the Ukraine National Anthem
All of them – the participants of the Ukrainian Women's Championship
At the center of attention: the winnesr, Anna Ushenina and Oksana Vozovic
The official tournament cake, which reads "Ukrainian
Women's Chess Championship. 13 years of Bank Pivdennyi"
Natalia Zhukova seals the fate of of the cake
