It was a breath-taking match in Mainz! Alexandra won the 11th tie-break game and took the "Red Jacket" along with her. Congratulation to both girls for a fantastic show (11 sicilians!). you can read more here

Alexandra won today her 4-game match against David Howell with the score of 3.5 out of 4, congratulations! Thanks to Mike Basman of UK Chess Challenge for a superb organisation. Now Alexandra is on her way to Mainz where she will dispute a match against Elizabeth Paehtz, let’s wish her well!

On August 9, in London, Alexandra was photographed, and the terrific photos will come out in the US edition of ELLE (I think November or December issue). Look out for that magazine!

On August 8 Alexandra visited the famous chess cafe SIMPSONS in London, accompanied by IM Mike Basman, the organiser of UK Chess Challenge, and Natalie Gibbs, chess teacher. Look out for her match against David Howell on Tuesday at Broadgate at noon!

The WINNER is: Ruxandra Caracas!! Alexandra received more than 100 emails with suggested locations as far as Sydney, Australia! The photo was taken on the shores of the Lake Leman (Lake Geneva), in the small town of Paudex, not far from Lausanne. The boats in the background of the photo are actually in the town of Lutry, which was the answer of Ruxandra. Bravo! Please Ruxandra send me your postal address and you’ll get a free autographed copy of Alexandra’s book! BRAVO!

While playing in the Paris championship, on July 15, Alexandra took part in a photo shoot for the magazine VOGUE. Beautiful pictures have been taken, and we suggest you buy a copy of VOGUE of november (Russian edition) when it comes out. We’ll be able to show you some of those photos only after publication!

After Biel, Alexandra visited the Swiss city of Yverdon, to play in the Swiss Blitz National Championship. She took third place with 14 points, behind the winner Ekstroem and Cvitan, who had 14.5, but before players such as Tukmakov, Pelletier, Jenny, and many others. Congratulations!

The Biel Masters Open finished on Friday August 2nd, and Alexandra scored a quite respectable 21st position with 6.5 out of 11, having played against 6 grandmasters, and being the 21st-ranked player at the beginning.