The interest from the media has been very strong for the women world chess championship won by Alexandra Kosteniuk, here are some media links: TV (English):

Spotlight TV. (Russian): Vesti 15, Vesti 16, Vesti 17, Vesti 18, Dobroe Utro, NTV. Radio (Russian): Ekho Moscow. Photos: All Players, Tourism 1, 2, 3, Finals, Closing. We are collecting the newspaper and magazine clippings and will post them soon.

Since she became the 12th Women World Champion in the history of chess last week, Alexandra Kosteniuk has been interviewed by dozens of TV channels. In particular, you can watch an interview in English on Russia TV either on chessmovies.com in Quicktime or on tubechess.com in Flash. We will continue to post movies to both those sites.

Click here to read Jerry Hanken’s interview of Alexandra Kosteniuk for Chess Life Online. Dozens of other web articles have come out, for example in the New York Times [If need registration click HERE], and in the Star.

In this photo you can see FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov handing over to recently crowned women world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk two telegrams with personal messages of congratulations from Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

It was an incredibly beautiful evening in Nalchik, where the Closing Ceremony of the Women’s World Chess Championship took place. On the photo to the left, you see freshly decorated Alexandra with her crown made of 46 diamonds and 3 blue sapphires, holding her gold world champion medal, a laurel wreath around her shoulders. NEW: Watch the 155-photo PHOTOALBUM!

Alexandra today in the 4th match game held on to a draw and so won the final match against Hou Yifan by 2.5 – 1.5, earning her a deserved World Champion Title. Alexandra is now the 12th Woman Chess Champion of the History of Chess. She is also the only person to hold simultaneously the titles of World Champion in Classical Chess and in Chess960. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support during the tournament and now, Alexandra is thrilled to be getting thousands of emails, guestbook entries, Facebook messages, youTube view, thanks!! The prize ceremony will be tomorrow and we can already promise you awesome photos! You can view or download the full 48-page Bulletin with all Final games very well commented by clicking here (1.3 MB).

Alexandra won her first game of the Final of the Women World Championship against China’s Hou Yifang, showing a good command of the Ruy Lopez with the black pieces. Have a look (copy and paste moves into the pgn player then press “apply”): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.a3 d6 9.c3 Bg4 10.d3 Na5 11.Bc2 c5 12.h3 Bd7 13.d4 Qc7 14.d5 c4 15.Nbd2 Nb7 16.Nf1 Nc5 17.g4 h5 18.N3h2 hxg4 19.hxg4 Qc8 20.f3 Nh7 21.Ng3 Bg5 22.Nf5 Qd8 23.Kg2 g6 24.Ng3 Kg7 25.Rh1 Rh8 26.Nhf1 Qf6 27.Be3 Bxe3 28.Nxe3 Ng5 29.Qe2 Rag8 30.Raf1 Qf4 31.Rxh8 Rxh8 32.Rh1 Rxh1 33.Nxh1 Nd3 34.Bxd3 cxd3 35.Qf2 d2 36.Ng3 Nxf3 37.Qxf3 Bxg4 38.Qf2 d1Q 39.Nxd1 Bxd1 40.Qe1 Bf3+ 41.Kg1 f5 42.exf5 gxf5 43.Qf2 Kg6 44.b3 e4 45.c4 bxc4 46.bxc4 Qg5 47.c5 f4 48.cxd6 fxg3 Black wins 0–1. UPDATE 16/9: The second and third games were drawn. One more game to go.

Tomorrow Sunday will take place the first game of the final of the Women’s World Chess Championship between Grandmasters Alexandra Kosteniuk playing under the Russian flag and Hou Yifan playing for China. They will play 4 games in total for the title of Women World Champion. There is a site www.chesspolls.com that collects forecasts on this match, so if you have an opinion on the possible winner, you can go there and cast your vote. You can view or download the full 28-page Bulletin with all semi-final games very well commented by clicking here (1.3 MB). Links: Photos, Live Games, Videos.

The last 6 months of intense training are paying out for Alexandra, who qualified today for the Final of the World Championship by drawing Pia Cramling in the second game of their mini-match, bringing her score to 1.5-0.5. Alexandra is the only player left in the championship not to have lost a single game up to now. Alexandra’s opponent in the Final will be decided in the tie-breaks tomorrow, it will be either China’s Hou or India’s Koneru. It will be Alexandra’s second try at the title, remember that in 2001 Alexandra went all the way to the Final but lost narrowly to China’s Zhu Chen after tie-breaks. Now Alexandra has 7 years more experience and many new titles, European Champion 2004, GM (men) 2004, Russian Champion 2005, Chess960 World Champion 2006 & 2008, European Team Champion 2007.

It was pure domination today, before 30 moves were played Cramling playing Black could hardly find any piece to move. Have a look (copy and paste moves into the pgn player then press "apply"): 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. e5 Ne4 6. Bd3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Nxd2 8.
Qxd2 f6 9. a3 Bxc3 10. Qxc3 fxe5 11. dxe5 Qe7 12. h4 Bd7 13. b4 a6 14. h5 O-O-O
15. Qd2 Kb8 16. c3 Rdf8 17. Qe3 Na7 18. a4 c5 19. bxc5 Rc8 20. Rb1 Qxc5 21.
Qxc5 Rxc5 22. Bxa6 Rc7 23. Kd2 Bxa4 24. Rb4 Bd7 25. Rhb1 Bc8 26. Nd4 Re8 27. f4
Ree7 28. Rb6 h6 29. g3 Re8 30. Rd6 Ree7 31. Bf1 Bd7 32. Bh3 Nc8 33. Bxe6 Nxd6
34. exd6 Bxe6 35. dxe7 Bd7 36. Nf5 1-0 Tomorrow the second game of this semi-final will be played (watch live at 3 PM local time). In the other semi-final, Hou beat Koneru with the white pieces. The tension is at a maximum since the ticket to the World Chess Championship Final is at stake.

Both Alexandra Kosteniuk and Pia Cramling have been in superb form and have reached the World Semi-finals. They are only 1 step from the World Finals. Who will win? Cramling is very experienced but Alexandra is very dangerous. They will play 2 games, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. In the other semi, Humpy Koneru will play Hou Yifan. By the way you can watch the games live here both days at 3 PM Nalchik Time (1 PM Paris time, 7AM New York time).
New, Pufichek updated his “Look at me!” gallery of beautiful women chess masters. Update: Kosteniuk won the first game.

Alexandra Kosteniuk beat Anna Ushenina today in the second game of their quarter finals match. Alexandra qualifies for the semi-finals. She will play Pia Cramling. In the other semi-final Humpy Koneru will play Hou Yifan. Have a look at Alexandra’s game: Ushenina – Kosteniuk: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 c5 7. dxc5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Ne4 10. e3 Qa5 11. Be5 O-O 12. Bd3 Nc6 13. Bxe4 Nxe5 14. Bh7+ Kg7 15. Bd3 b6 16. cxb6 d4 17. exd4 Nxd3+ 18. Qxd3 Re8+ 19. Kd1 Bf5 20. Qd2 Bxc3 21. Qxc3 Qxb6 22. Ne2 Rac8 23. Qa3 Rc2 24. Re1 Rd8 25. Qe3 Qxb2 26. Rc1 Re8 0-1. You can copy and paste the moves into this pgn player. New: Download the Bulletin with this great game commented by GM Shipov.

Another free day for Alexandra during the World Chess Championship in Nalchik. She had a chance to visit the famous Blue Lake, whose color is absolutely amazing. It’s also one of the deepest lakes in Europe and divers have gone as far down as 180 meters below surface. You can see Pufichek’s photos by clicking here.

Alexandra qualified for the 1/4 finals of the Nalchik Women World Championships by beating Tatiana Kosintseva (ELO 2511) 1.5 – 0.5. She will be opposed to Anna Ushenina (ELO 2476) from the Ukraine next round. Make sure to visit Pufichek’s photo album of most of the players from the Women World Chess Championship in Nalchik. We have uploaded for you the two games Alexandra played against Tatiana Kosintseva, commented by GM Belov in a PDF, and to be downloaded in pgn format. By the way if you want to see the games in your browser, we recommend you simply copy and paste the pgn text into this universal pgn player.

Pufichek from our partner site Chesspics created a photo album of most of the players from the Women World Chess Championship in Nalchik, you don’t want to miss it. As usual ou can vote for the players you like best (5 stars = best, 1 star = worst). We have obtained special "Look at me!" gallery for you, enjoy! You can also watch Alexandra’s free educational videos (youTube channel, chess killer tips, flash videos, quicktime videos).

Today Alexandra had a free day and she was invited to explore the very beautiful countryside of Kabardino-Balkaria. About 2 hours away from the capital Nalchik she
visited the Chegemskie waterfalls. The local people were very hospitable and made meat shashliks and other delicious local dishes (like the traditional bread with cheese and potatoes called khychin). You can see a photo album of Alexandra’s day out by clicking here.

Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk won her first two games in Nalchik against Pourkashiyan from Iran. You can read GM Belov’s analysis of her first game from the bulletin. Alexandra is qualified for the third round which will start on Thursday. Thanks to all of Alexandra’s fans who sent her emails of support for this important competition.