Right now the first round of the Chess Olympiads is being played in Torino. In the women’s section, Russia is playing Portugal, Alexandra is playing on the first board of Russia against Catarina Leite. The Russian men are playing against Kazakhstan. Watch the women’s games live by clicking here. We will put the results up as soon as they are available. Useful links: Complete statistics: men, women. Best photos, click here. Breaking News: Both Russian teams (men and women) won with a maximum 100% score, 3-0 for the women and 4-0 for the men.

The Opening Ceremony of the Torino Chess Olympiads took place tonight and tomorrow will be the first round. Games are played at 3PM local time in Torino. We’ll put new photos daily on our Chesspics page and news on our main page. NEW! Click here to see our photos of the Zvenigorod Training and click here to see photos of the Opening Ceremony.

Alexandra Kosteniuk and the whole Russian team arrived today in Torino for the 37th Chess Olympiads. The Opening Ceremony will take place tomorrow, and we promise you’ll get news daily and many many photos on our special CHESSPICS photo page, click here to see it.

Alexandra checked out the playing hall of the chess Olympiads today and will participate in the Opening Ceremony tonight. Tomorrow will be the first round. The official site of the Chess Olympiads can be found by clicking here. If you want to see a full listing of all teams and players, click here for the women’s statistics, and here for the men’s statistics. On those pages you will see that the Russian women’s average Elo is 2499, ahead of the Ukraine (2441), Georgia (2430), Hungary (2426), the USA (2414), China (2408), and the last team with an average Elo above 2400 Elo is Armenia (2402). It will be a hard fight for the Gold!

Here’s a photo of the Russian women’s team which will try to win the Olympic Gold at the upcoming Torino Chess Olympiads, which will start on May 20, 2006. On the photo, from left to right: IM Tatiana Kosintseva (Elo 2489), IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Elo 2460), GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Elo 2540), IM Nadezhda Kosintseva (Elo 2469). The photo was taken at the training camp of the National team in Zvenigorod. You can see more photos of the training session in Zvenigorod by clicking here to view our new photo album.

We now have the final composition of the women and men teams that will represent Russia in the coming Chess Olympiads in Torino. For the men: Kramnik, Svidler, Morozevich, Grischuk, Bareev, Rublevsky. And for the women: Alexandra Kosteniuk, T. and N. Kosintseva, Kovalevskaya. Both teams are extremely strong and will definitely fight for a place on the podium. During the Olympiads, we will have daily news. The best photos of most teams and players will be on CHESSPICS, also updated regularly.

Alexandra would like you to know her little dog a little better, we have for you a collage of 4 recent photos, click here to see it. Is Moxi not adorable?

HAPPY BIRTHDAY! Today Alexandra turns 22 years old. She thanks her fans for the wonderful emails, letters, MP3 greetings and nice wishes she has received, that really warms her heart. Alexandra is now in Switzerland for a few days before returning to Russia for the final big training before the Torino Chess Olympiads. In a couple days she will issue her podcast #17, come back to listen to it!

We have been able to get hold of a few copies of the official TV show GOLDEN BLITZ 2005 DVD, won by Ponomariov in the men’s competition and by Alexandra Kosteniuk in the women’s, with great players such as Bareev, Short, Grishuk, Tkachev, Krush, and Skripchenko. Watch a 3 minute 5 megabytes preview of the Zhu Chen – Kosteniuk match by clicking here (quicktime). You can also download it for free in the MP4 format for iTunes and for your iPod by clicking here. The full 1 hour 50 minutes DVD featuring all players and matches is on sale for the special price of only $14.99 in our webshop, while supplies last. Click here for more info.

NEW: Have a look at our photo album of Alexandra Kosteniuk in Frascati, (near Rome, Italy). It was a beautiful spring day in Frascati and Alexandra did her best to promote chess, at a press conference with Anatoly Karpov, then visiting a youth chess tournament, and by giving a simul on the main city square. To see the 79 photos, click here.

We have for you a small analysis of Alexandra Kosteniuk’s progress during the last 5 years, where she improved from 2397 to 2540 and from 40th in the world in 2001 to 3rd today. You can see a chart showing this progress by clicking here and a full analysis in a PDF file by clicking here.

Alexandra gave a wonderful simul yesterday in the main square of Frascati (near Rome, Italy), winning all 21 games she played. Most of all, she was a tremendous attraction to practically all city residents, who came to see her play. Alexandra gave out autographs all day long, it was a fantastic promotion of the game of chess. Our photo album is almost ready, it will be online tomorrow latest.

We would like to share with you the results of a recent poll conducted with the readers of the French chess magazine Chessmag. It included several top candidates, including Karmen Kaas, Monica Seps, and Antoaneta Stefanova. Look who won by clicking here. Let us just add that we are even more happy that Alexandra’s chess rating is going up, which shows the great effort she makes to be a better chess player, that’s the best way to popularize chess.

America’s USCF April 1 Rating List just came out. As expected Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk is the top rated female member of the US Chess Federation, with her 2563 USCF rating.

Alexandra gets a new FIDE ELO record and rank! We are pleased to announce that Alexandra Kosteniuk’s FIDE rating has increased to 2540 ELO, she now is in the 3rd position in the world. You can see the top 50 list by clicking here. This is a new record for Alexandra, which shows she has not stopped to make progress and is always trying to reach new highs.

Grandmasters Alexandra Kosteniuk and Anatoly Karpov are the guests of honor in Frascati (Italy). Alexandra will play a simul tomorrow and we will have photos for you of the event, as well as of todays press conference.

Alexandra’s Podcast #15 is out with news and commentary of the recent world championship in Ekaterinburg. It’s a 9 minute audio radio on-demand MP3 file. You can download it as usual in iTunes, or directly download the MP3 file by clicking here, or find out more in our podcast page. Alexandra will be on March 31 and April 1 in the beautiful city of Frascati (near Rome, Italy) and will be a special guest of the Frascati Chess Festival, click here to see the official site. On the photo to the left you see Alexandra shaking hands with the organizer of the Frascati Festival Mr. Giancarlo Marcotulli. We will soon have nice photos for you!

Click HERE to see the BEST PHOTO ALBUM of the players of the 2006 Women World Chess Championship. You can also see a general photo album with photos of the matches played by clicking here. Watch the games live on the official site each day at 3 PM Ekaterinburg time (= 11 AM Paris time, 5 AM EST).

Alexandra lost her match against Viktoria Cmilyte of Lithuania, and so it is Viktoria who will continue in the competition, we wish her good luck! This championship has been full of surprises, from the top 12 rated players, only Chiburdanidze from Georgia and Xu Yuhua from China are left in the race! Incredible but true! Click here for the Championship album.

Alexandra won both games of the second round against Danielian, so she is qualified for the 3rd round, only 16 players remain. Have been eliminated some favorites, like Koneru, Stefanova, Cramling, Krush, Zhukova. More playoffs tonight, at 9:30PM Ekaterinburg time. Tomorrow will be the first game of the third round. We just added exclusive photos to our albums, don’t miss them! Click here for the Championship album. Our superb PLAYERS PHOTO GALLERY can be seen by clicking here to see it. More photos and news every day!

Alexandra won both games against Natalia Khoudgarian and therefore moves on to the next round! Many top ranked and favorite players have been eliminated after the first round: Zhu Chen – could not come, Lahno – lost against Peruvian player Zapata, N. Kosintseva – lost against 11-year old Chinese sensation Hou, Paehtz, Dembo, Korbut, Skripchenko have been eliminated. Alexandra’s second round match will be against Danielian NEW! Exclusive photos of the Opening Ceremony and the tournament – click here to see them. We also have a superb PLAYERS PHOTO GALLERY, click here to see it

Finally the moment you have been waiting for has arrived, the Women’s World Chess Championship has started in Ekaterinburg, Russia! On the photo to the left you can see Edgar Rossel, the Governor of the Sverdlovsk Region, who just played the first move in the game Kosteniuk – Khoudgarian: 1. e2-e4. Present are all high dignitaries, including FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. You can watch news and get information on the official site, and soon you will see the best photos of the championship right here. Very soon we will post the photo album link. Keep posted.

Alexandra’s little sister, Oxana, is the host of the 14th Episode of the Chess is Cool Podcast, and she talks about the women’s World Chess Championship, which starts on Saturday in Ekaterinburg, and in which Alexandra will take part as one of the main contenders for the supreme title of women World Champion. Listen to Oxana in podcast 14 by clicking here (MP3 file, 9 MB). You will be able to follow the Championship on the official site and also of course right here, we will keep you informed about how Alexandra is doing so come back often to see our news and photos.

Alexandra Kosteniuk is on her way to Ekaterinburg to play in the 2006 Women’s World Chess Championship, that starts there on March 10. We will have full coverage of the event and we promise a photo album of most players. Click here to see the final 64 players who will participate. We have created a poll (to the right) so that you can try to guess who will win the championship, one of the top rated 8 women or someone else. Will it be a surprise? Keep posted for the answer! If you haven’t yet, please vote for Alexandra’s podcast by entering your email in the box to the right. Thanks!

Alexandra’s podcast made it to the top world 50 podcasts in February, and has been regularly in the top 100 all month. In this week’s episode 13 (approx. 5 minutes, 8 MB) she talks about her 2657 ELO performance at the Aeroflot A1 tournament in Moscow and she gives a tip on how to make progress at chess. Please be so kind to send Alexandra a voice greeting either by email or to her voicemail +1-305-767-2143, and also please vote for her podcast in Podcast Alley by simply entering your email in the box at the top right of our main page (the email is needed for vote confirmation). Thanks! More information can be found on our Podcast Page.

It is time for us to introduce you to Alexandra’s new little dog: “Moxi”. She is a Russian Toy Terrier, and she is very small and weighs at the moment less than 1 kilo. She is adorable and loves to lick everybody she sees. Moxi is learning how to play chess by chewing on the pieces, and we think that with practice, she will be one of the best chess playing dogs around, at least in picking up the pieces and bringing them back to the board.

Alexandra Kosteniuk finished the 2006 Aeroflot A1 Grandmaster chess tournament with one of her best performances ever, with 5/9 against opponents ranked 2614, her performance was equivalent to 2657 ELO, which will make her go up even higher in the next world rankings. She played 9 strong male Grandmasters and got 2 wins, 6 draws, and only 1 loss. Well done! Look at the final rankings by clicking here.

In the last three rounds Alexandra drew GM Bu from China and GM Korotylev from Russia, and today she beat GM Robert Kempinski from Poland (ELO 2619). Up to now Alexandra has 5/8 (+2 =6 -0) with a very high average rating of opponents, giving a performance rating well above 2600.

Another good result today, Alexandra Kosteniuk drew Russian National Team Member Grandmaster Alexander Motylev, ELO 2638. Up to now she has 3/5 in this tremendously strong tournament (+1 =4 -0 against 5 GM’s). This is very good practice ahead of the world chess championship that will take place next month in Ekaterinburg. Follow her tomorrow for the 6th round on the official Aeroflot Open site. NEW ALBUM: Click here to see the Zvenigorod January 2006 album. More albums to come shortly!

Great result today, Alexandra Kosteniuk drew ex-world champion Grandmaster Alexander Khalifman, ELO 2660. Follow her tomorrow on the official Aeroflot Open site.

Alexandra is playing in the extremely strong Moscow Aeroflot A1 Tournament. Up to now she has the very good result of 2 out of 3, with draws against GM Wang (ELO 2599) and GM Markus (2596) and today a win against GM Kazhgeleyev (2607). Tomorrow she will be playing against ex-world champion GM Alexander Khalifman, it will not be easy. You’ll be able to see the results and watch her game live on the official Aeroflot Open site.

FIDE just announced today the list of 64 players (click here to see it) who will participate in the Women World Chess Championship that will take place from March 10-27 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. The championship will be extremely strong, with all the 25 strongest active players in the world in the race, with the only exception of J. Polgar. Alexandra is the third top rated player of the 64-player field, just after H. Koneru of India, and P. Cramling of Sweden. 7 women with the supreme men’s highest title of Grandmaster will be playing. It will be fascinating to watch, we are sure!

Alexandra is training hard in the Russian town of Zvenigorod, where at the moment the temperature is extremely cold at below 35 degrees Celsius (note that -35 Celsius = -31 Fahrenheit). That does not stop Alexandra from doing cross country skiing each day, in between her chess training sessions. We will have a new photo album for you shortly! It is important Alexandra be in top shape for the upcoming World Championships in March, and in order to play in the Olympiads in Torino to defend the colors of her country in May. Thanks for your messages of support, please feel free to write emails to Alexandra and to leave her voicemail messages, with greetings, questions, or simply good wishes to 1-305-767-2143. Thanks!

Alexandra has a gift for you, she commented two of her wins of the recent North American Open, you can download the pgn file by clicking here. Make sure to listen to Alexandra’s podcast show (radio-on-demand), the 11th episode just came out, in 5 minutes you will hear Alexandra tell you about her future competitions, give us some chess news, and of course her weekly chess tip. It’s all on our Podcast page.

Finally Alexandra is back in Miami after her trip to Las Vegas, to play the North American Open and participate in the CES, as well as some tourism to the beautiful Valley of Fire then the Grand Canyon (more photos to come soon). The solution to the Chritmas puzzle is: 1. Qf4!! and mate is unavoidable next move. We received close to 500 answers with about 450 correct ones, and about 10 extra credits for having sent MP3 greeting files. Alexandra will announce the winners in tomorrow’s podcast #10, listen to it by visiting our Podcast page.

After the tournament of last week Alexandra and her friend Almira spent New Year’s in Las Vegas, then started the year with active tourism, first in the Valley of Fire, then visiting the Grand Canyon. We will soon have a nice photo album for you, come back and see it. P.S. make sure to listen to Alexandra’s podcast #9, and be so kind to vote for it in Podcast Alley and in Yahoo Podcasts. Thanks!

HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ALL! The FIDE rating list of January 2006 is out, and Alexandra moved up to #4 woman in the world. You can see Alexandra’s most recent Rating card by clicking here and the top 50 women list by clicking here. Alexandra is doing great progress, you might remember that in January 2001 she was in position 40, in January 2003 in position 18, in January 2004 in position 13, and last January 2005 she was in position #8. Since April 2004 Alexandra has consistently been in the World top 10 and improving.

NEW PHOTO ALBUM! We are pleased to present the promised photo album of Alexandra’s friend and excellent chess player, the Champion of France Almira Skripchenko, look at it by clicking here. Thanks to Pufichek for a great album with photos of Almira alone and with Alexandra. You will have to agree that it’s hard to beat those two champions with a combined coefficient beauty + brains! Is that not a great way to promote chess?

NEW PHOTO ALBUM! Alexandra is glad to offer to all her fans a new series of beautiful Christmas Photos, look at them by clicking here. Latest tomorrow we will present another exclusive chess photo series together with French champion Almira Skripchenko, don’t miss seeing it!

Alexandra is in Las Vegas, playing in the North American Open. Today was the first day, and Alexandra is fighting hard, at the moment she has 2 points out of 3. Many GM’s are playing in the event. There are 4 more rounds to go, 2 per day for 2 days. We’ll let you know how it goes. Update: Alexandra finished the tournament with 5 out of 7, sharing the 8th-14th place. She then played the blitz tournament and finished 2nd-3rd with GM Milov, behind GM Nakamura.

MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL! Today Christmas day Alexandra and Almira spent the afternoon in the studio. We’ll soon have an exclusive photo album of the two beautiful and intelligent chess champions. An incredible combination of chess power and unsurpassed elegance, not to be missed, so come back soon to see them! Tomorrow flight to Las Vegas, and on the 27th begins the North American Open, we’ll keep you informed. We hope you have listened to the recent interview of Almira in Alexandra’s Chess is Cool Podcast Episode Number 8. You can listen to it from our Podcast Page by clicking here.

From the bottom of my heart, I wish everybody a Merry Christmas 2005! May you spend it in happiness with your family and your loved ones. In this bright holiday, let’s give even more love and attention to all the people around us. It depends on us to make the world a happier place. Sincerely yours, Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Look who came to visit Alexandra in Florida: it’s her best friend Almira Skripchenko, the chess champion of France. Alexandra and Almira are now enjoying together the beautiful Florida weather and the nice shopping opportunities. Yesterday the two champions went to visit the Cape Florida Lighthouse, which was built in 1825 and is the State’s oldest landmark. Have a look at the photo album we made specially for you by clicking here. Tomorrow we will issue our 8th episode of Alexandra’s podcast, and yes you guessed right, Almira Skripchenko will be the special guest of honor, make sure to visit our podcast page and take a listen when it comes out. Just after Christmas, Alexandra and Almira fly to Las Vegas, where Alexandra will play in the North American Open, which will take place on December 27-29, 2005.

We are proud to present a most beautiful work of art, a lacquer box of incredible detail from the MSTERA painting school, painted by hand by M. Papsheva in Russia specially for Alexandra. The motive is totally unique, it depicts a king playing chess with a wiseman, and yes, Alexandra is there to help those two men play chess! View close-up. The person who will make the highest bid for a donation to Alexandra’s Chess Fund (minimum $300 bid) will get it (deadline December 31, 2005), with a “Buy me now” feature of $600 (just in time for Christmas). Send your serious bids to us by using our Contact page. See more photos of it by clicking here. A true unique collector’s item. Note 18.12: Sold.

Here is our Christmas Competition! We will send a Chess Computer Alexandra the Great, made by Excalibur Electronics, to the happy winner, selected at random from the correct answers. There will be other winners, who will receive autographed postcards from Alexandra, so make sure you include your postal address in the email to Alexandra. Also, if you want to increase your chances of winning just a little (your name will be entered 3 times into the drawing), please send a short voice greeting to Alexandra, either by sending it in MP3 format by email, or by calling her voicemail at +1-305-7672143. It might end up being played in one of Alexandra’s next podcasts! Good luck!

Valid USA postage has been issued with Alexandra and Chess as their theme. We have extremely limited numbers of these stamps. They are true collectors items, sure to go up in value, but they are not for sale. Alexandra will send a thank you card using those stamps as postage to anybody who makes a donation to her Chess Fund. See all the stamps by clicking here. Help chess and at the same time make yourself a gift!

Thanks to our good friend IM Jovan Petronic, who send us a nice photo report from his Kavala Chess Club in Greece. The kids there really liked Alexandra’s comic and it is posted on their board for all to see. Look at Jovan’s report by clicking here. By the way if any chess club writes to Alexandra by email, she will gladly send a color version of the comic and some goodies for the kids, all entirely free! Alexandra wants the whole world to know that… Chess is Cool!

It is the holiday season, and as a special gift to all our visitors, with the help of our good friend René Duret, Alexandra is very glad to be able to offer you a beautiful chess story. Please click here to find out whom Alexandra is going to visit and what they will do together.

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.

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.