The 2nd Women's World Team Chess Championship took place in Yinzhou, China, from September 2nd to 11th 2009. The time controls were FIDE: 90 minutes for 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest with a 30 second increment per move.

World Women's Team Championship in Yingbo

Photographic impressions by GM Ye Rongguang

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3: Organiser Tian Hongwei (left) presents the trophy

4: The trophy, which is a ???

5: The winners, China One, with GM Ye Jiangchuan, ??, Hou Yifan, Zhao Xue, Shen Yang, Huang Qian, Yu Shaoteng, ?

6: IM Nadezhda Kosintseva, 2493, Russia, 6.5/9, with a staggering 2608 performance on the second board for Russia

7: WIM Alisa Melekhina, 2220, America, 4.0/6, 2463 performance

8: IM Inna Gaponenko, Ukraine, vs Wang Yu, China Two in round six (Gabonenko won)

9: Harika kibitzes in the game Danielian vs Tan Zhongyi in round eight (Tan won)

Nadezhda Kosintseva, best performance in this event (2608)

11. IM Tatiana Kosintseva, 2536, Russia, scored 4.5/9 with a 2458 performance

12. Oh those eyes! Tatiana in sepia colours

13: GM Zhao Xue, 2542, China One, 4.5/8, 2472 performance

14: WGM Shen Yang, 2453, China One, 3.0/5, 2504 performance

15: IM Iweta Rajlich, 2465, Poland, 4.0/9, 2423 performance

16: The Indian team with Eesha Karavade, Kruttika Nadig, Harika Dronavalli, Mary Ann Gomes

17: IM Harika Dronavalli, 2474, India, 4.5/9 with a 2465 performance. Harika and Eesha Karavade helped us to identify many of the players or associated persons in this pictorial report. Many thanks to these charming young ladies.

18: WIM Zhang Xiaowen, 2391, China Two 3.5/9, 2364 performance. Xiaowen is the
Asian Women Champion and played on Board two for her team.

19: IM Rusudan Goletiani, 2391, America, 4.0/9, 2357

46: Rusudan always has her trademark green scarf

20: IM Anna Zatonskykh, 2462, America, with 2.0/7 and a 2288 performance

21: Anna checking out a Panasonic digital camera

22: WFM Valentina Gunina, 2437, Russia, 6.5/8, 2560

Valentina lost her second round game due to the new zero tolerance rule, having arrived a few seconds late at her board. That was her only loss of the tournament – she scored a brilliant 6.5 points in the next seven rounds and received the gold medal for fifth board.

23: WIM Alisa Melekhina received a gold medal for the fourth board

31: Alisa pensive and in colour

24: GM Maia Chiburdanidze, 2506, Georgia, 4.0/7, 2531 performance

25: Untitled Ju Wenjun, 2443, China One, 4.0/8, 2364 performance

26: IM Irina Krush, 2458, America, 4.0/8, 2471 performance.
In the above picture Irina is singing at the dinner party on the free day.

27: WGM Nataliya Zhukova, 2457, Ukraine, 5.5/9, 2522

29: WIM Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska, 2321, Poland 1.5/3, 2263 performance

28: Karina was a reserve player on the Polish team

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32: IM Elina Danielian, 2489, Armenia, 3.5/9, 2387 performance

33: Anna Zatonskykh poses with some granite friends

34: Valentina Gunina

35: Nataliya Zhukova exercising her artistic skills in photography

36: WIM Siranush Andriasian, 2234, Armenia, reserve player

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38: My big friend: IM Lilit Mkrtchian or Armenia, rated 2468, scored 6.5/9
points on board two, with a 2603 performance, the second-best in this event.

39: Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska's friend is not quite so gigantic

40: Like most young ladies Karina can't keep away from horses

41: Photographing the American team: Rusudan Goletiani, Anna Zatonskykh,
Abrahamian Tatev, Alisa Melekhina (Irina Krush missing)

42: Adventurous: Lilit Mkrtchian, Siranush Andriasian and Valentina Gunina

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44: Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska

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47: Trainer of the Russian team Yuri Dokhoian. On the right is Tatiana Kosinthseva, standing arbiter Alexander Bakh, on the left ???

48: Yuri was Kasparov's trused second for over a decade

49: GM Mihail Kobalia

50: Ye Jiangchuan, China's third ever grandmaster. Ye has been the chief
coach of the Chinese National Teams (men and women) since 2000

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52: Indian team coach IM Lanka Ravi enjoying some Chinese tea

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54: Ignatius Leong, a leading Asian organiser and FIDE Vice President

55: Alexander Bakh, chief arbiter of the event

Individual round results

In our previous report we mentioned that there had been suspicion of match fixing in the final round. Vietnam had a commanding position against China One, when suddenly draws were agreed and the Chinese team took Gold. One of our readers pointed out anothe anomaly in that round:

Pham Le Thao Nguyen (2301) - Zhao Xue (2542) [A46]
2nd WTeam w Ningbo CHN (9), 11.09.2009
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 e6 3.Bf4 c5 4.c3 b6 5.e3 Be7 6.h3 0-0 7.Be2 Bb7 8.0-0 d6 9.Nbd2 a6 10.a4 cxd4 11.exd4 Nbd7 12.Re1 Re8 13.Bd3 Nf8 14.Bg3 Qc7 15.Qe2 Ng6 16.Ng5 Qc6 17.Ndf3 Qd7 18.Nh4 Nxh4 19.Bxh4 Nh5 20.Be4 Bxe4 21.Qxe4

21...h6?? Huh? 22.Nf3?? The Vietnamese player misses 22.Qh7+ Kf8 23.Qh8 mate! But didn't she play 21.Qe2xBe4 to threatens mate on h7? The game continued 22...Bxh4 23.Nxh4 Nf6 24.Qd3 b5 25.axb5 axb5 26.Nf3 Qc6 27.Nd2 Nd5 28.Qf3 Reb8 29.Qe4 Rb6 30.f4 g6 31.g4 Rxa1 32.Rxa1 Ra6 33.Rxa6 Qxa6 34.f5 Nf6 35.Qg2 Qa1+ 36.Nf1 exf5 37.gxf5 g5 38.Qe2 Qa6 39.Ne3 Kg7 40.Kh2 Qc6 ½-½.

Of course we cannot rule out a notation error. For those who are interested, the relevant article in the FIDE Handbook states:

We are slightly puzzled, since we seem to recall that results of matches in team events (leagues, team championships and even Olympiads) have often been openly agreed in the past – or is our memory deceiving us? Oh dear, another subject for discussion and discord.

Ranking crosstable

Links Official tournament site (rudimentary) All games in PGN To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.