Today was Alexandra’s first book signing for her newly released book “Diary of a Chess Queen“, in Coral Gable’s Books & Books. As the last book signing, it was a lively question and answer and most attendees left with an autographed copy of Alexandra’s book.

Read Alexandra’s report with photos of this event on her chess blog. On the photo to the left you can see Grandmaster Julio Becerra who just got his copy of Alexandra’s book. If you’d like to order your own copy with free autograph, you can do it on Alexandra’s web shop.

Alexandra published a sample YouTube video of her new upcoming DVD “Chess Blitz Fever”, which will contain tips about playing better blitz chess, as well as her wins, fully commented against world rated #1 Magnus Carlsen, World Champion Vishy Anand, and super-GM’s Grischuk, Morozevich, Aronian, Gashimov, Judith Polgar, and Naiditsch. The DVD will hit the shelves by the end of February, free shipping if you pre-order it before then.

Yesterday was Alexandra’s first book signing for her newly released book “Diary of a Chess Queen“, in the beautiful bookstore Barnes & Noble of Aventura, Florida. Lots of people came to her talk and signing session, the questions and answers kept everyone interested and tuned in to chess 100%. Read Alexandra’s report with photos of this event on her chess blog. On the photo to the left is Alexandra and her promising student Rachel Gologorsky. There will be one book signing on Monday 8 PM at the Books & Books of Coral Gables, Florida. If you miss it, you can order your copy with free autograph on Alexandra’s web shop.

Alexandra promoted chess to thousands of live spectators and millions of TV viewers on January 1, 2010, on the top TV program “Zolotoi Grammofon”, which is the Russian Music Oscars event of the year. She handed an oscar to famous singer Stas Pekha. The YouTube video presented is 9-minute summary of the 2-hour program. Since the video is in Russian, Alexandra posted an explanation post of what is said around minutes 3-4 of this video on her chess blog.

Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk invites you to either or both of her Miami book “Diary of a Chess Queen” signing sessions, that will take place on January 7 at 7 PM at the Aventura Barnes & Noble, and on January 11 at 8 PM at the Coral Gables Books & Books. She will give a talk, answer any questions, and autograph her book for you and for your loved ones.

Alexandra just published Episode #35 of her Chess is Cool Audio Podcast. It’s filled with news about her chess tournaments of this last fall, and more than 50 tips to play better blitz chess.

Alexandra is pleased to share with you her Christmas Chess Comic. It’s available at no cost to schools and scholastic publications, just contact Alexandra to get the original.

Alexandra has created 2 Merry Christmas Postcards for you to share with your friends, see the FIRST one, and the SECOND one. She wishes all her fans to have Love in their hearts, Happiness in their lives, and some Chess during the holidays.

We have 3 fresh photos from today’s prize ceremony where Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk was awarded the Top Prize in the First ACP Women’s Rapid Cup, with an unprecedented result of 10 out of 11 points. The photos are GOLD, TOP3, ALL PLAYERS. Please monitor chessblog.com for more news from Alexandra herself. NEW! Read Alexandra’s exclusive post about this tournament.

Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk has displayed a fantastic result at the First ACP Women Rapid Cup in Konya, Turkey, by winning 10 of her 11 games, two full points ahead of her closest competitor Viktorija Cmilyte, who ended up with 8, then Tatiana Kosintseva 7.5, Pia Cramling and Monika Socko 7, Nadezhda Kosintseva 6.5, etc. (see crosstable). Alexandra’s performance corresponds to an impressive 2746 ELO. She will chessblog about it a little later today.

Alexandra Kosteniuk is featured on the USCF’s official web site with a nice article by Jennifer Shahade, with the title “Women’s World Champion Kosteniuk on Endgames, Blitz and Coming to Dallas”.

We have just found out that Alexandra’s new book “Diary of a Chess Queen” and new DVD “My Best Games” will be in stock on December 9, and will ship on December 10. Order your copies for yourself or your loved ones in time for Holiday delivery. Free personal autograph for every order. More information can be found on chessblog.com.

Today was the second day of the World Blitz Championship, the strongest blitz tournament on the planet. Here’s a photo (see it bigger) of Judith Polgar resigning after Chess Queen Alexandra played 78. Nf4! stopping Judith’s black pawn from queening (if 78… e1=Q 79. Nd3+ is a fork) and soon to queen her “h” pawn herself with h7 and h8=Queen. A very nice knight endgame played with precision by Alexandra. NEW! WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE GAME!

Alexandra was in top form today at the World Blitz Championship in Moscow. Just today she beat (Men’s) World Champion Viswanathan Anand (ELO 2788), Alexander Morozevich (2750), Alexander Grischuk (2736), Vladislav Tkachiev (2642), Judith Polgar (2680), and Levon Aronian (2786), and drew against Anatoly Karpov (2619) and Arkadij Naiditsch (2689). Those are wonderful upsets that yielded Alexandra a performance index of ELO 2725 for the day! Tomorrow is the last day of the championship and 14 more games will be played. (See the photo bigger). NEW! WATCH THE VIDEO OF THE GAME!

Today was the first day of the World Blitz Champioship, the strongest blitz tournament on the planet, to which Alexandra Kosteniuk has been invited to play. The tournament is very tough, nevertheless, Alexandra ended the first day with a respectable 4 points, having won against Magnus Carlsen (2801 ELO), Arkadij Naiditsch (ELO 2689), Vugar Gashimov (ELO 2758), and making draws against Anatoly Karpov (ELO 2619) and Peter Leko (ELO 2752). Note that Carlsen is currently rated #1 in the world, so beating him is quite a feat. YouTube video to follow… There are 28 games to go…

It’s total success for Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk and her team at the European Team Chess Championships, one of the most important team event of the year. The 5 girls (Kosteniuk, T. & N. Kosintseva, Gunina and Romanko) won Gold at the team event (see report), and in addition, Alexandra showed the best performance on the first board, also winning an individual Gold medal on the first board, with 6 out of 8, 75% and 2621 ELO performance (see report). Full results are on Chess-Results and on the Organizer’s page. As usual the freshest news can be found on Alexandra’s leading women’s chess blog: www.chessblog.com.

Alexandra would like to wish you all a very Happy Halloween. She has posted 3 Halloween chess postcards you are free to use to celebrate the day, postcard 1, postcard 2, postcard 3. Alexandra will give out prizes to the best Halloween Chess photos you send her by email. Good luck!

Alexandra just posted a new YouTube commented chess blitz video with the second game she played in the Tal Memorial against Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky (FIDE ELO 2607 at the time). She had already commented her first blitz game against him last year.There are many more blitz and serious games commented on Alexandra’s YouTube channel, named “chessqueen”.

Alexandra takes the plane today to Belgrade, Serbia, to participate in the European Team Chess Championship. It takes place in Novi Sad, from October 21 to October 31st. Alexandra will play on board 1 of Russia, and her team mates are, in order of boards Tatiana Kosintseva, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina, and Marina Romanko. Useful links: Official Page of the Organizer, Results Page. Alexandra’s team is the highest rated women’s team in the championship and boasts an average of 2500 ELO. It’s going to be close though, with very strong teams of Georgia, Ukraine, Poland, and Armenia. We’ll keep you posted on developments.

Alexandra today was in Moscow’s biggest book store on Novy Arbat street to introduce to the Press and to the public her new book “Diary of a Chess Queen” (Russian version). She played a simul and commented her moves to the public via microphone which was heard in the whole store. The English version of Alexandra’s Book will come out on December 1 and is available for pre-order now. Free autograph to any order placed before publication date. Read more about Alexandra’s book on her blog.

Alexandra Kosteniuk has published an article on her blog “Abolish Women’s Titles? Ridiculous!” in a strong response to the weakly thought up article from the Wall Street Journal, calling for abolishing women’s chess titles.

After reading Alexandra’s post, please feel free to leave your comments and opinion at the end of Alexandra’s post. Alexandra is most grateful for the show of support she has received (already 50+ comments in less than 24 hours). Note: comments closed.

Women’s World Chess Champion and Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk is currently ranked #1 most influential chess personality on Twitter, according to the Social Benchmarking site WeFollow, who ranks people according to many keywords. Go to the CHESS category, where you will find currently in the lead Alexandra (nickname on Twitter @chessqueen ), then @ChessTweets, @ColonelCrockett (that’s our friends at Chessvine) and @HarvardChess. Alexandra is also very big on YouTube, and on Facebook, making her a strong leader in the chess Social sphere. If you haven’t already, consider joining Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, and make sure to become friends and follow Alexandra, whose nickname is all the services is “chessqueen“.

Watch and listen to Alexandra as she comments her game against International Master Andreas Huss from Switzerland. Taken from a tournament played in beautiful Silvaplana in Switzerland.

Alexandra won a prize for the best analysis from the Chess Journalists of America Association for the analysis of this game, as published in the Swiss Chess Review. You can see this commented game and many more on Alexandra’s YouTube channel.

Alexandra is right now at the 80th FIDE Congress, being both a full member of the FIDE Presidential Board and the Co-Chair of the Women’s Chess Commission. Read her report on the Commission Meeting of October 12. More news to come soon on chess blog. Also: Post about Anand-Topalov.

Alexandra was in Athens, Greece today to give a simul and a big boost to the Athens Chess Festival. It was a wonderful time for all. Alexandra wrote an extensive post with many photos on her Chess Blog . You can also visit the official Facebook Page and WordPress Site for the Festival.

Watch and listen to Alexandra as she comments her recent game from the Eurocup in Ohrid against International Master Inna Gaponenko from the Ukraine. Alexandra was playing this game on the first board of the Team of Monaco and that win contributed her team to get Silver medals in the competition.

Alexandra and her team from Monaco composed of Humpy Koneru, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Pia Cramling, Monika Socko, and Almira Skripchenko got an excellent result and silver team medals at the recent Eurocup in Ohrid. Read a full report with photos and many commented positions from her games at these links: PART 1, PART 2. Alexandra will comment tomorrow her very nice win against Inna Gaponenko on her YouTube channel. Update: Link.

Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is glad to announce the September Grand-Prix Puzzle Contest (click here to see the chess positions to solve).

You will need to solve 3 chess puzzles, ranging in difficulty from easy to difficult. They will be challenging and interesting for everyone. Try to solve them on your own without help from the computer. Since there are prizes, please answer only by email before the end of September and not by entering comments in the guestbook or in my blog. Good luck!

Watch and listen to Alexandra as she comments her blitz game against Grandmaster Alexey Korotylev at the recent 2009 Moscow Blitz tournament.

It’s hard to believe that it’s possible to beat such a seasoned male Grandmaster as Korotylev (ELO FIDE 2596) in only 19 moves. The ending combination is very nice. You can also read Alexandra’s post on her chess blog about this tournament.

On October 14, 2009 Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk will give a big chess Simul in Athens, Greece, right on Petroupoli Square, simultaneously to 10 women, 10 men and 10 juniors. You can see the official poster of the Athens Chess Festival in English and in Greek. Visit also the official blog of the Festival, and its Facebook Group. The
Festival is organised by Petroupoli Chess Club ASOP DIAS.

The United Chess Federation (read article) has invited Alexandra Kosteniuk to Dallas, Texas, USA to play a Simultaneous Exhibition at the National K-12 Chess Championships. It will take place at 10 AM on December 11, so hurry and sign up at the USCF webstore before it’s filled up. Alexandra will have available there brand new copies of her “Diary of a Chess Queen” book (published December 1), so pre-order now and she will autograph them for free at the event.

In Moscow Alexandra happened to buy the magazine Vogue and found an article about her! At first she was surprised by their choice of photo, but after thinking for awhile it makes good sense 🙂 Sorry the article is in Russian!

Alexandra Kosteniuk was the winner today in the Indianapolis U.S. Open Chess Blitz event. She obtained 12.5 out of 14 games (11 wins and 3 draws) to secure the title. The official results are posted on the organizer’s site. We have a video recording of all the games, one or two will probably make their way to ChessQueen channel on YouTube.

Alexandra Kosteniuk had a great US Open in Indianapolis, getting 5.5 out of the 6 first games and in total 7 out of 9 points. She comments her first day of the championship on her blog here. Her comments and games from the second day are now also on her blog. Tomorrow August 8 Alexandra will participate in the Open Blitz tournament, we will let you know how it goes and on Sunday night we will find out which is the final rank she obtained in the Open.

The very respected Association “Chess Journalists of America” (CJA), has elected Alexandra Kosteniuk as the Chess Journalist of the Year 2009, congratulations! You can read Alexandra’s statement among the finalists for the title and find out more about the CJA. Membership is only $10 per year, it’s open to journalists (chess writers, webmasters, podcasters, photographers, etc.) of the whole world and Alexandra strongly advises to become a member and support the promotion of chess around the world.

Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is glad to announce a new regular Grand-Prix chessblog.com Puzzle Contest (click here for August 2009 Contest).

You will need to solve 3 chess puzzles, ranging in difficulty from easy to difficult. They will be challenging and interesting for everyone. Try to solve them on your own without help from the computer. Since there are prizes, please answer only by email before the end of August and not by entering comments in the guestbook or in my blog. Good luck!

Alexandra is very glad to announce that her new book “Diary of a Chess Queen” will soon be hitting the shelves. It will be published on December 1, 2009 and available to ship right after that. She spent almost 6 months writing this book and has put all her heart and effort into it. Over 1/3 is text and the rest are her best 64 chess games, commented very deeply. Anatoly Karpov wrote the introduction to the book. You can find out more about it and pre-order it now on chessqueen.com and Alexandra will autograph it for you, for an pre-order price of only $22.95. A collector’s must have, and the perfect gift for a chess player near you!

We just got hold of the promotional photos of Alexandra connected with her work with Zimaletto (clothing brand), Straight Up Chess (vertical wall-mounted chess board), and Jewelry by Juliana (necklaces and rings). Feel free to browse the exclusive new photo album and vote for the photos you like best. Remember you can always communicate with Alexandra either on Facebook, or on Twitter, or on YouTube (on all three her nickname is “chessqueen”, or on her chess blog chess blog.

Hurry to signup for the official U.S. Open Simul that Alexandra Kosteniuk will be giving at the U.S. Open in Indianapolis, on August 5th at 6PM. Reservations are now being accepted–please email cbruce@uschess.org or call
931-787-1234 ex 147. You can also sign up at the USCF webstore. The cost is $50, but kids Under 18 and anyone who wins will get a free autographed DVD from Alexandra. The simul is capped at 50 players, so sign up today! You can find the official announcement from the USCF here.

The 1st Alexandra Kosteniuk Chess Camp took place today at the Miami Chess Academy, and over $1,000 of prizes were awarded. Every kid got a medal and a prize, with the top winner in the General category going to Robert Perez, congratulations! Next came Jose Diaz and Jonathan Lau. The top girl in the tournament was Annaby Pozo. More details can be found on chessblog.com . This is the first USA tournament conducted by Alexandra, and she counts on the second edition next year to be bigger and better.

We’ve made it easy for you to connect with current Women’s World Chess Champion and Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk: On the major social networks, her nickname is “chessqueen”. So don’t be shy and add her as a friend on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and of course subscribe to her chess videos on YouTube. And once you’re “connected”, tell her if you agree that chess is cool!

Press Release: The modern clothing fashion brand Zimaletto and Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk are pleased to announce their new collaboration agreement: Alexandra will actively take part in the development of the new Zimaletto Sport chic collection Autumn-Winter 2009/10, which will include black & white chess motives. In addition, Alexandra will model for the collection. You can read the official Press Release in English on Chessblog.com and in Russian on Zimaletto’s site. See photos on Zimaletto and on Chesspics.

Alexandra’s first session of her chess camp ended today at the Miami Chess Hall of Fame and Museum. It was a great success, lots of chess daily, fun, games. The second session starts on Monday.

It was an incredibly hot day in Panama today and Alexandra gave a simul outside to 20 chess fans, which required her to put on sunglasses, sunscreen, wear a hat, and drink lots of water. All went well though, and she won all 20 games. You can see Pufichek’s photos of the event on chesspics, and Alexandra’s report of the event on chessblog.com.

World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk received today from the Mayor of Panama a diploma of Distinguished Visitor of Panama City. After a press conference, she gave a talk to the students of the “Universidad de las Americas” on how chess can help in life and business. Tomorrow morning at 9 AM she will give a simul, more photos to come very soon! By the way, a large article came out on the very popular Ellas Magazine, in print and online.

HURRY TO SIGN-UP! Kids from 5 to 18 are invited to take part in ALEXANDRA KOSTENIUK’S FIRST ANNUAL CHESS CAMP! You can sign up for any or all of 4 weekly camps (June 22-26, June 29-July 3, July 6-10, and July 13-17), which will take place at the historic Chess Hall of Fame and Chess Museum in Miami, Florida. Sign up fast as space is limited. More information as well as the sign up form can be found on the Chess Museum’s site. There will also be a tournament, 10-12 July Alexandra Kosteniuk USA Chess Cup (for girls and boys U-8, U-11, U-14, U-18) 4 sections 6 Rounds USCF Rated Swiss System Tournament Time Control Game/45 minutes, trophies top 5 medals for all, and lots of prizes in kind each section.

World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk has been invited to Panama to promote chess for kids. She will give a simul (on June 20 at 9 AM), showing that chess is a healthy activity, suitable for the whole family. Alexandra will also visit the “Universidad de las Americas” on June 19 and will give a talk on how chess helps in life, and in business. You can see the event poster by clicking here.

You are invited to see recent photos of current Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, taken on the beach near Miami, Florida, by Pufichek. You can watch the whole album by clicking here.

In the short YouTube chess movie below I comment my second rapid game against French Champion Sophie Milliet, played last week in Porto-Vecchio, Corsica.

I made a blog post on my new women’s chess blog www.chessblog.com with full comments to my 18-move miniature win against French Women’s Champion Sophie Milliet at the Corsica women champion’s match. It was a very sharp line of the Scandinavian Defense.

You can read it in full by clicking here.

Posted by Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk.