World Women's Team Chess Championship-2011: Part I |
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Tuesday, 03 January 2012 | ||||||||||||||||
by Natalia Pogonina for her Chess.com Tuesday column The World Team Chess Championship is one of the most prestigious team events, although womens championships have a very short history. This years edition in Mardin, Turkey was only third. The previous two tournaments ended in the same way: 1. China 2. Russia 3. Ukraine. What about year 2011?
Our team (click the link for some nice pics), the reigning Olympic and European champions, was composed of the following players: Nadezhda Kosintseva (2546), Tatiana Kosintseva (2526), Valentina Gunina (2514), Natalia Pogonina (2451), Alexandra Kosteniuk (2439). Yuri Dokhoian stepped down as the teams captain and was assisting the Kosintseva sisters in preparation, while Alexei Korotylev took over his duties. Usually the main competitors for the medals are China, Russia, Ukraine and Georgia, although this year India also looked powerful enough to be in contention. Koneru Humpy (rated 2600 at that time) has finally agreed to participate, thus greatly increasing the might of the team. Ukraine, on the contrary, was having a relatively hard time since Kateryna Lahno didnt take part. The tournament is held as a round robin, thus eliminating the randomness of Swiss events where top dogs sometimes dont even get to face each other. All in all 10 teams were allowed to participate some from the Olympiad, others as continental champions. A brief overview of the schedule for our team revealed that we were to play face three of our main competitors in the first five rounds: Vietnam, Ukraine, Greece, Georgia, China. The first round didnt bring any surprises for us. We defeated Vietnam with a minimal advantage (2.5-1.5). While our opponents ratings are not that high, we know quite well that they have a solid team.
The central match of the round, India vs Ukraine, ended in a draw. Koneru defeated Ushenina, and Zhukova stroke back against Padmini. Other results of the 1st round: Turkey-China 1.5-2.5; RSA-Georgia 0-4; Armenia-Greece 4:0.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 03 January 2012 ) |
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