From November 14 to 27, Alexandra was a guest of honor of the Russian Men’s Superfinal in Moscow. The highest rated Russian man, Garry Kasparov, convincingly won the event with 7.5 points out of 10, congratulations! Alexandra participated in the opening and closing ceremonies, she was honored for being the highest rated Russian woman and for being the only Russian woman to ever get the Grandmaster (Men) title. You will see plenty of photos of the participants and Alexandra with famous people (such as in this photo the 7th World Champion V. Smyslov), if you look at our new photo album by cicking here.

On November 25, Alexandra was invited to the Russian State Duma (the equivalent of the Congress in the USA), to give a simultaneous exhibition to 19 top government officials and their assistants. She obtained the excellent score of +16, =2, -1. This was Alexandra’s first event after she was awarded the men’s Grandmaster title, a first for Russia in the whole history of chess. Look at our photo album by clicking here.

Last night was the opening ceremony of the 57th Russian Men’s Superfinal, in the very nice Vasilievsky Restaurant of the Hotel Rossia, across of the Kremlin. Alexandra, newly crowned with her Olympiad Medal and her Grandmaster (Men) title, was a special guest of the party, along with many celebrities. Here’s a larger historic photo of Russian top rated chess female player Alexandra Kosteniuk with Russian top rated male chess player Garry Kasparov. You can also see here a photo of Alexandra with the Vice-Premier of the Government of the Russian Federation, who is also the President of the Russian Chess Federation. More photos to come soon!

BREAKING NEWS:We are pleased to report that Alexandra Kosteniuk, who already holds titles of WIM and WGM (women titles), and IM (International Master, Men), has just been awarded the highest chess title of all, GM (Grandmaster, Men). The FIDE ratified her GM (men) application at the recent FIDE Congress, held at the Calvia Olympiads on October 30, 2004. Alexandra is now the 10th woman in the whole history of chess to get that highest title. Before Alexandra, the only women who have ever achieved the GM title are: N. Gaprindashvili, M. Chiburdanidze, J. Polgar, Xie Jun, S. Polgar, Zhu Chen, A. Stefanova, H. Koneru, P. Cramling. Alexandra is now Number 1 Girl in the world and Number 4 Woman in the world. She is the first Russian female chess player to ever get the GM (men) title. CONGRATULATIONS!!

Very nice performance by the Russian team in Calvia – bronze medal overall, after China and the US, congratulations to all 3 teams! Alexandra did a strong performance of 2539 ELO, including playing against 4 (ex-) world champions, all games hard fought, no quick draws, and beating current world champion Stefanova for the second time this year. Look at all of Alexandra’s games in an applet by clicking here, and look at our updated 88-photo album by clicking here. Make sure to have a look at Pufichek’s photo albums of most teams (previous news item)!

We are proud to present to you Pufichek’s extensive player gallery from the Calvia Olympiads, with most players of both women (63 teams!) and men (49 teams!) competitions photographed. We have more than 3,000 photos of players at the Olympiads, about 1/3 online. This is the best and most extensive set of photos of the Calvia Chess Olympiades, enjoy! If you’d like to buy any photo, please email Pufichek! To see the albums click here for women, and here for men. From there you can access all other albums. Enjoy!