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Alina Kashlinskaya started the Tbilisi Women's Grand Prix - the inaugural event of the series - with 5 draws in a row. After the rest day, however, she collected 3 wins in 4 games (she drew the remaining encounter) to claim outright victory in Georgia's capital. She beat R. Vaishali, Lela Javakhishvili and Mariya Muzychuk in rounds 6, 8 and 9 to claim the title. Her victory granted her 130 GP points and a 20,000 Euros prize.
Aged 30, Kashlinskaya is married to Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek. Last year, the couple had a son, who now joined his mother at the tournament in Tbilisi. After securing tournament victory, Kashlinskaya confessed, referring to her 10-month-old son:
He helped a lot. I will definitely bring him with me to the next tournament. [...] For motherhood, it is important to be with the baby as much as possible.
A Supergrandmaster's Guide to Openings Vol.1 & 2
This video course includes GM Anish Giri's deep insights and IM Sagar Shah's pertinent questions to the super GM. In Vol.1 all the openings after 1.e4 are covered.
Kashlinskaya's 6/9 undefeated performance earned her a second GM norm and 16.4 rating points. She is now ranked 13th in the women's live ratings list.
Sole second place went to 20-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva from Kazakhstan. The youngster had grabbed the sole lead after round 7, but her final 2 draws allowed the eventual champion to leapfrog her in the standings. Still, Assaubayeva collected 105 GP points in the event - the top 2 finishers in the series will get spots in the next edition of the Women's Candidates.
A 3-player pack tied for third place, with Nana Dzagnidze joining Anna Muzychuk and Stavroula Tsolakidou in this group thanks to her final-round win over Sara Khadem.
As per the FIDE calendar, the next event of the series should start on 29 October in Shymkent, a city in Kazakhstan located near the border with Uzbekistan.
The podium: Bibisara Assaubayeva (2nd), Alina Kashlinskaya (1st) and Stavroula Tsolakidou (3rd on tiebreaks) | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
Master Class Vol.16 - Judit Polgar
In this video course, experts (Pelletier, Marin, Müller and Reeh) examine the games of Judit Polgar. Let them show you which openings Polgar chose to play, where her strength in middlegames were, or how she outplayed her opponents in the endgame.
Alina Kashlinskaya during round 9 | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
Local favourite Nana Dzagnidze scored a win on Saturday | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
Stavroula Tsolakidou and Alexandra Kosteniuk in good spirits | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
