As promised, here is the solution to our Thanksgiving Puzzle Competition. The mate in 2 is obtained by playing 1. Qc1-e1 !! and in all 4 variations Black cannot avoid mate in the next move. We have received close to 300 correct answers and Alexandra picked the winners depending on their descriptions of why they think “Chess is Cool”. Some of the stories are wonderful, thanks to all for participating! Alexandra loved your emails so much she will soon put up another competition for you! The names of the winners are published in Alexandra’s podcast #5 and on our podcast page, click here to see it.

The list of top Russian chess players came out in this month’s Russian magazine “64 Chess Review”. Alexandra continues to be rated #1 Russian woman, while in the men’s list Garry Kasparov leads the pack. Note that Alexandra is the only Russian woman to have the (men’s) Grandmaster title, and she is also the only Russian woman to have passed the symbolic 2500 mark. You can see the full list (men and women, in Russian), by clicking here.

Alexandra today gave a simul in Penza to dozens of very happy kids, delighted to know Alexandra had flown so many hours specially for them! Alexandra will be back to Miami tomorrow, just in time for Thanksgiving! Alexandra and her site www.kosteniuk.com wishes to all of you a very happy Thanksgiving! Alexandra is very thankful for all your emails of support, that gives her more strength to prove that… Chess is Cool!

Alexandra took a 13-hour flight from Miami to Moscow, in order to visit an orphanage in the city of Penza and give the children a chess simul and many gifts. She is happy also to say hello to her parents and her sister Oxana (who is studying at Moscow State University). Alexandra will be back in Miami just in time for the Thanksgiving holiday. If you have not yet heard Alexandra’s podcast (= radio show on demand), you can find out everything about it (and listen to it) by clicking here. There are already 3 episodes out!

Alexandra did wonderfully well at the 2005 Key Biscayne 5K Lighthouse run. Her time was 22:24, she ended up 5th woman overall, taking prizes for the 2nd place in the open 20-24 age group, as well as the 1st place in the Key Biscayne residents 20-24 age group. She set a record time for this group, congratulations! Tonight we will put up the second episode of Alexandra’s podcast, it will be posted on this page. Please remember to VOTE for Alexandra’s podcast both here and here. Thanks!

Alexandra will participate tomorrow morning in the 2005 Key Biscayne 5K Lighthouse run. She has been training daily, and so we hope to be able to report a good result tomorrow. Keep posted! Also, Alexandra’s Podcast has been very well received in the world, as all top podcasts aggregators have listed it. If you haven’t yet please listen to Alexandra’s first episode by going to the Podcast Page. Alexandra would be most grateful to you if you could vote for her podcast on both Podcast Alley (click here) and Yahoo Podcasts (click here). The more people like and vote for the show, the more it will be pushed to the front and more people will be interested in chess. Alexandra is working right now on her second episode, it will be put in the feed very shortly! If you subscribe (free) to her feed, you will get it automatically on your PC! This is the technology of the future, to prove that chess… is cool!

Great news to report, Alexandra’s new Chess Podcast is on iTunes, the most popular podcast aggregator in the world, with more than 25,000 podcasts listed! It is now super easy for you to subscribe to Alexandra’s podcast (100% free) and have her weekly podcasts downloaded automatically to your computer, and also synchronized to your MP3 player (like an iPod), if it is attached to your computer. Click here (this is an iTunes link) to go directly to the iTunes page, and please subscribe to Alexandra’s Podcast, and spread the word to all your friends! If you don’t have iTunes nor an iPod, you can always visit our Podcast page by clicking here, from where you can download manually or simply listen to all the episodes for free. Alexandra really hopes her podcasts will attract more people to the wonderful game of chess!

We are pleased to announce the birth of Alexandra’s new CHESS PODCAST, totally free, and coming to your ears on a weekly basis! We have created a special podcast page for you, with all details about this new technology. Click here to get to that page. If you don’t want to waste any time and listen to the first edition of Alexandra’s podcast, click here to listen to or download the 6-minute 8.8MB MP3 file. Since this is Alexandra’s first experience with podcasting, please feel free to send Alexandra by email comments with ideas and suggestions if you have any. Thanks and enjoy!

Today is a very sad day, Alexandra’s cat Kaissa (named after the Goddess of Chess, her short name was Kaska) died today November 5, 2005, at the age of 12. She was an integral part of Alexandra’s family. You can watch the last small movie Alexandra filmed by clicking as follows: here for a Quicktime version (better quality, 1.7 MB), and here for a MP4 version (1.2 MB). See here a photo of Kaissa with Alexandra and her little sister Oxana in 1994, Kaissa was then less than 1 year old. Some recent photos: 1) with Oxana 2) on a chair 3) with Alexandra 4) on the bookshelf. We will never forget you, Kaissa!

COMPETITION! We have another Puzzle Competition for you, with 10 great prizes to be given out on Thanksgiving Day (A Chess Computer, 2 Chess Books, 3 Puzzle sets, and 4 Teddy Bears!). To win, you need to send Alexandra by email 1) The solution to the puzzle to the left (it’s mate in two moves: white plays and whatever black plays white will mate next move) and 2) A one or two sentence text why you think “Chess is Cool!” (in your own words). On Thanksgiving we will publish the names of the winners as well as the most imaginative texts! Good luck!