Women's World Team Championship starts in Astana

The city of Astana in Kazakhstan is hosting the Women's World Chess Team Championship from March 2nd to 12. The organizers are the national Chess Federation, FIDE, Akimat of Astana, Agency for sports and physical education and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan. The event is being held in the Duman Hotel in Astana.

Astana

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Astana has been the capital of Kazakhstan since 1997, and is the country's second largest city (after Almaty, the former capital). It is located in the north-central portion of Kazakhstan, within Akmola Province, though administrated separately from the province as a federal city area.

The monument and observation tower Bayterek is the most famous landmark in Astana. It is meant to embody a folktale about a mythical tree of life and a magic bird of happiness, Samruk, that has laid its egg on a poplar tree. The tower is 105m tall, the gold-mirrored egg, 22m in diameter, contains the observation deck. From there it is possible to see much of the newly built city:

Real photographic panorama view of Astana by Ken and Nyetta for Wikipedia (scroll right)

Opening ceremony

The ten best teams in the world are participating: China, Russia, Ukraine, USA, India, France, Turkey, Georgia, Rumania and Kazakhstan. The Russian team, which won the Chess Olympiad last September and took three silver medals in previous Women’s World team championships, is playing without its two top players, Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva, who have refused to play for the team under the leadership of the trainer Sergei Rublevsky, citing 'psychological incompatibility'.

GM Sergei Rublevsky with Valentina Gunina, Olga Girya and Alexandra Kosteniuk

They were replaced by Alisa Galliamova and Olga Girya. In spite of this the Russian team is third on Elo average and remains one of the favourites in the tournament.

The top seed Ukrainian team is fielding Women World Champion Anna Ushenina
on board one. It is her first official event since she won the title.

Each team consists of five players, with four playing in each of the nine rounds of this round robin tournament. Time control is 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

The Chief Arbiter of the tournament Takis Nikolopoulos (above right) conducted the ceremony of drawing of lots. Each team was invited to the stage and the top players were proposed to choose a flower with the number. In the above picture you see the Turkish players WGM Kubra Ozturk and Betul Cemre Yildiz with their trainer Adrian Mikhalchishin.

The Indian team with WGMs Soumya Swaminathan, Padmini Rout, IMs Nisha
Mohota, Eesha Karavade, and WGM Mary Ann Gomes

Photos from Astana by Anastasiya Karlovich

Schedule and results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN 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 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.