Chess & Cactuses – 9 Queens Honors Kosteniuk at Tucson Chess Fest

Hello everyone!

I just came back from a wonderful trip to Tucson, Arizona, where I visited the 9 Queens Chess Fest. There were lots of chess activities for kids and grown-ups, it was one of the best chess promotion events I’ve ever been to!

I was able to meet  a lot of new chess friends, play a simul against 40 players (I won all 40 games), and even the next day enjoyed the warm weather, which allowed me to take lots of photos of beautiful cactuses. I would like to thank especially Jean Hoffman and Vicky Lazaro who worked round the clock with a great group of volunteers to make this Fest a great success. Check 9 Queens Blog & Facebook page. Also check out my photos below.




To be sure that there would be a lot of visitors, we gave several interviews to the local press. One very nice article came out in the popular magazine “Tucson Lifestyles“. Another article came out in the Republic newspaper.







Click here to read the article from Tucson Lifestyles







40 players lined up to play me in a super chess simul!







At times the simul was not easy







But I managed to win all my games. Here’s one of the toughest one I played







The Mayor or Tucson and 9 Queen’s Jean Hoffman awarded me the 9 Queens “Woman of the Year” prize







Lots of fans lined up for autographs and photos







The next morning before flying home I was delighted to photograph lots of beautiful cactuses in the campus of the University of Arizona. I posted a few on Twitter, on Facebook and in my Instagram photo feed (my nickname on Instagram is also “chessqueen”) and got lots of compliments, the cactuses in Arizona are truly exceptional!







A funny photo showing me going through an “extra” check at the Tucson airport. The 9 Queens trophy is so beautiful and the base is heavy that the airport security needed to check it some more to make sure there were no hidden chess pieces in there, or at least that’s what I assume they were looking for…







A final collage of my wonderful impressions from Tucson.




Thanks again to 9 Queens, Jean Hoffman and all the volunteers and sponsors for creating the best possible chess promotion in Tucson, Arizona. It’s an example to be followed all around the world!




Just in case you were wondering, according to the Merriam Webster Dictionary and to Wikipedia, the plural of “cactus” can be either “cacti”, or “cactuses” or “cactus”. All three are correct 🙂







Watch the video by Steve farmer about the event.




Posted by Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk
12th Women’s World Chess Champion
www.chessqueen.com
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Tags: 9Queens, kosteniuk honor, kosteniuk photo, tucson chess
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