Archive for October, 2012
 Hello everyone! I’m pleased to report that Twitter management contacted me and proposed to “verify” my account “@chessqueen” so that nobody would have any doubt that “@chessqueen” is my account (there are sometimes impersonation attempts using my name Alexandra Kosteniuk or trademark “chess queen”). So now you can be sure that my English Twitter account is @chessqueen. As far as I know, I am the first professional chess player or Grandmaster whose account has been “verified” by Twitter – and the only one at this time. If you know of anybody else whose Twitter account is verified and who is a GM (Grandmaster), please let me know! Read more…
 The European Chess Club Cup just ended in Eilat, Israel. In the women’s section, the Monaco team won, and in the men’s section, the Azerbaijan team won. Besides team medals, the most sought after Gold medal was the 1st Board top result, and it was obtained by Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk, with a result of 4.5/6 and a higher performance than current women’s world chess champion Hou Yifan, whom she beat in the very first round of the event (in a surprise Caro-Kann, replay the game here). Alexandra won 11 Elo points in this event (+60 Elo points so far this year), and will be back above 2500 on the November 1 rating list, which will be right before the women’s world championship, in which the best women chess players of the planet will take part. New: more photos at the bottom of the post.
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 Today was the first round of the European Club Cup 2012 in Eilat, Israel. I am playing for the team “SHSM” which is composed exclusively of players from Moscow, with Russian Champion Gunina on the second board and Kovalevskaya on the 3rd board. We played against the top rated team Monaco, which has hired the current world champion Hou Yifan on the first, Humpy Koneru on the second, Anna Muzychuk on the third. So it was a fierce match, and especially the first board match was the most watched in the tournament, with me playing Hou Yifan, that is the 12th women’s world chess champion playing the current 13th women’s world chess champion. I decided to give her a little surprise, and for the first time in my life…
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 Right this weekend, my 2012 Kosteniuk Chess Cup for Kids U-6, U-8 and U-10 is taking place in Svetlogorsk, Russia. More than 100 kids have been invited and are fighting for the top prizes. There is a lot of attention from the city and state authorities, many sponsors are helping to make this event a success. I made a post on my Russian Livejournal page, I will soon add here more information and photos of the winners.
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 The FIDE Chess ratings for October 2012 have just come out. After last year’s not so good results that saw me go from 2522 down to 2439, this year has been much better, and I’m now back to 2490 Elo, with my Rapid rating at a very respectable 2572. You can see my rating progress in the image below. This year’s events so far have been: World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Batumi (Silver and 4th place), European Championship in Gaziantep (11th in Classical and Silver in Rapid), Russian Team Championship in Sochi (2nd on 1st board), Kazan Grand Prix (5th), Russia vs. China match in Saint Petersburg (top women result), Swiss Individual Mixed Championship (Bronze), Blitz Match vs GM Wang Hao in Biel (1.5-0.5), Istanbul Chess Olympiads (Gold Team Medal and Individual Bronze Medal). This year I still have in October the European Club Cup in Israel, then in November the World Championship in Russia, and finally the Sport Accord Mind Sports Games in December in China. A lot of chess events this year! 🙂
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Hello everyone!
Happy Chess Halloween to all!
I got in my mail recently the issue 2012#6 of the excellent Chess Magazine New In Chess, and was pleased to see on pages 10-11 an old photo of me, my sister and my Dad from 1993 (I was 9 years old). The article is called “Getting Girls on the Board”. It mentions 
