We are pleased to report that Alexandra had a great success at the annual New Year Blitz tournament, organized by the Deputy Economy Minister Arkady Dvorkovich in Moscow. After qualifying in the semifinals, she won convincingly the final with 8 points out of 9, ahead of GM Najer (2635) 7, GM Dlugy (2518) 6.5, GM Alekseev (2716) 6, GM Bareev (2653) 4.5, GM Vasiukov (2492) 4, etc. We have all of Alexandra’s games in video and by popular demand will soon post some online. By the way, we will be soon closing the Christmas competition, hurry to send your answers, free prizes are ready to be won!

Yesterday December 23 Alexandra’s Chess School for boys and girls Under 7 organized the First Alexandra Chess Cup, in two categories, birth date after 2000 (up to 7 y.o.) and birth date after 2002 (under 5 y.o.). For most kids this was their first chess tournament ever, and it was most successful, Alexandra handed every kid prizes and they were all very happy. Alexandra announced that this tournament will be held each year, another building block in proving to kids that Chess is Cool! Watch the photos of the event.

Have a look at this excellent 43-minute documentary by Davide Fasolo about 12 chess professionals talking about their passion. The movie features Anatolij Karpov, Levon Aronian, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Michele Godena, Fabio Bruno, Rusudan Goletiani, Elisabeth Paehtz, Ennio Arlandi, Martha Fierro, Daniele Genocchio, Marl Quinn, and Alex Wohl. We have two versions for you to chose from: A Flash version and a Quicktime version. Enjoy. For reference, here is the link to Davide Fasolo’s web site.

CHRISTMAS COMPETITION!! To celebrate its great success and the soon-to-come 50th episode, Alexandra’s new video podcast , CHESS KILLER TIPS, is hosting a Christmas Chess Competition, with many chess prizes to be won! Chess books, chess software and other chess gifts are ready to be sent to you. To win, you need to send in the best answers to the following three chess puzzles: ONE (white plays and wins), TWO (black plays and wins), THREE (white plays and wins). The deadline is set to December 24, 2007. Send us your detailed solutions, together with your name, age if you’re less than 18 years old, and mailing address for the prize. We’ll publish the solutions and names of the winners in one of the next Chess Killer Tips podcasts, as well as here on our home page. Good luck!

We have a gift for you: Alexandra Kosteniuk comments in great detail and in video format her blitz game against GM Zoltan Almasi (ELO 2691) at the Moscow World Chess Blitz Championships Qualifyers of last week. The game demonstrates important ideas in the Berlin Wall Defense of the Ruy Lopez. Watch Alexandra show you each move, in a 11-minute video file (approx. 76 MB, please be patient while it loads, it’s worth it), either in Flash or in Quicktime. If you’d like to analyze the game further, you can download the pgn file. Please send Alexandra comments if you like these videos and would like more of them, or if you have any problems watching them.