Chess Queens

Searching for a hotel for Malaysian Chess Open

2008-08-08T17:38:00.001-07:00

Just a bookmark here on this blog because a group of chess parents were in a dilemma because they wanted to attend the Malaysian Open Chess Festival on the 18th to 24th August in Malaysia. Problem was that the main hotel, Cititel Midvalley has been booked way in advance. Someone told us that it is peak season because that country is celebrating their independance day around that time.

So, the next best thing was to find the nearest hotel. I used HotelsCombined.com for this and it returned 130 hotels!! For us the main criteria is that it be 3 stars and above and near to the tournament place. The search page was super helpful with filters for just about anything you'd find important for selecting your hotels such as star ratings, room service, high-speed internet, swimming pool, whether pets are allowed or not etc. In the end it took us 20 minutes to narrow our search down to Pearl Point Hotel which was only 5 minutes away from our playing hall by cab! That was indeed great. In addition, the bonus was the room we chose was comparable price with the official tournament hotel, Cititel. Also our hotel was close to ammenities like supermarket, food courts, and cheap internet cyber cafes. Talk about luck!

We've reserved 3 rooms for ourselves already. Calling the hotel, we found out that the taxi stand is just outside the hotel and it was no problem hailing one. We will take their word for it.

To other chess parents, if you find a better hotel search website other than HotelsCombined, please leave a comment here. So far this site is the best we've found. Will probably use it in future when travelling to other unfamiliar countries with our kids to play in chess tournaments. See you guys there in the Malaysian Open in the coming week.

Judit Polgar to play in Biel

2008-08-01T13:33:00.000-07:00

Judit Polgar will be battling it out with Anand among other players in Biel starting on August 1, 2008. As usual she is the only female taking part.

We wish you good luck which we know she won't need. There'll be a massacre of male ego and we can wait for the results to come out. Needless to say Chess Queens fans will be following the outcome with anticipation!

Jewelry gifts for kids

2008-07-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Found this nice gift website which has a section for gifts for children. It is a jewelry website which is quite well organised and if you interested in jewelry, this is the site to go to. Everything is categorised properly such as Diamonds, Gemstones, Rubies, Pearl etc making it easy to find exactly what you want.

This site caught my attention since it has a children section. The gifts in that category is quite good too. Below is an angel pendant that caught my eye.

They also quite varied and have sections for engagement rings and diamond earrings among others.

In short it is one of the better organised online jewelry website which has a suitable section for kids that I've seen so far.

It's definitely a good reward for chess queens who need to be rewarded to further motivate them in their road to improvement for chess. A nice trinket of jewelry which doesn't have to be too expensive is the perfect incentive gift.

Chess Blog for Girls

2008-03-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

Susan Polgar's personal blog is one of the most well known in the chess world. She is a prolific blogger - posting tirelessly several blog posts a day on that blog. It's incredible for someone to have such energy and love for the game.

This is Susan Polgar's lesser known blog. It's especially just for events organised for girls by the Polgar Foundation.

Check it out at http://polgargirls.blogspot.com/

WGM Zhang Jilin blog

2008-02-11T05:04:00.000-08:00

Adding to the list of Chess Queens is a WGM blog that I found on the net. Her name is WGM Zhang Jilin and she is quite a strong female chess player too.

http://blog.sina.com.cn/zhangjilin

Here's a game where she defeated Tania Sachdev at the World Junior Championship (Girls) 2006.

[Event "World Junior Championship (Girls)"]
[Site "Yerevan ARM"]
[Date "2006.10.12"]
[EventDate "2006.10.03"]
[Round "9"]
[Result "1-0"]
[White "Zhang Jilin"]
[Black "Tania Sachdev"]
[ECO "B43"]
[WhiteElo "2292"]
[BlackElo "2383"]
[PlyCount "95"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 a6 5. Nc3 Qc7 6. Be2 Nf6 7. O-O Nc6 8. Kh1 Bb4 9. Qd3 O-O 10. Bg5 Be7 11. f4 d6 12. Rad1 Ne8 13. Bxe7 Qxe7 14. e5 d5 15. Na4 Qb4 16. b3 Qxd4 17. Qxd4 Nxd4 18. Rxd4 b5 19. Nc5 Ra7 20. Kg1 Rc7 21. b4 f6 22. Bg4 Rc6 23. c3 Nc7 24. Bd1 Na8 25. a4 bxa4 26. Bxa4 Rc7 27. exf6 Rxf6 28. Bb3 Nb6 29. Ra1 Nd7 30. Nxe6 Rxe6 31. Bxd5 Nf6 32. Bxe6+ Bxe6 33. Rxa6 Kf7 34. Ra3 Bc4 35. Ra5 Bb3 36. b5 Rxc3 37. b6 Ng4 38. Ra1 Be6 39. Rb4 Bd5 40. b7 Rc2 41. b8=Q Rxg2+ 42. Kf1 Nxh2+ 43. Ke1 Nf3+ 44. Kd1 Rg1+ 45. Ke2 Rxa1 46. Qc7+ Ke6 47. Rb6+ Kf5 48. Qd7+ 1-0

A Chess Princess is born

2007-09-16T22:27:00.000-07:00

A little bit late news but news nonetheless.

Kosteniuk gave birth to a chess princess, Francesca, on April 22, 2007.

Congratulations to the father and mother of this new beautiful baby!!

Believe it or not, little Francesca already has her very own blog .

Susan Polgar Chess Blog: A NEW Champion will be crowned

2006-03-20T00:00:00.000-08:00

Susan Polgar Chess Blog: A NEW Champion will be crowned

Even Susan Polgar thinks Xu Yuhua has the best chance to become World Champ!

Top 4 in Women World Championship

2006-03-19T23:34:00.000-08:00

vs
Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU) * Galliamova, Alisa (RUS)

vs
Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS) * Xu, Yuhua (CHN)

Who do you think will win?

I favor Xu Yuhua.

Chimi downs 3 GM

2006-03-08T16:25:00.000-08:00

19 year old Batchimeg Tuvshintugs or "Chimi" of Oakland is doing sensationally well in the US Championship B Group.
Chimi started the first round by beating GM Alex Fisbein ,the first time she has ever beaten a GM! The second GM she beat was GM Boris Kreiman in Round 3.
Chimi then beat GM Julio Becerra (ELO 2556) in Round 5 on the Black side.

She currently has 3.5 points out of 5 - tied second place after 5 rounds.
Chimi plays White vs Gata Kamsky in Round 6.

Related Link:

US Championship official website

Susan Polger National Invitational for Girls

2006-02-23T01:18:00.000-08:00

Chess Blog For Girls: Rules and Conditions for the 2006 SP National Invitational for Girls. The tournament will be played during the U.S. Open Championship.

Kosteniuk performs well in Aeroflot 2006

2006-02-22T20:25:00.000-08:00

Alexandra Kosteniuk finishes in 24th place in the very strong Aeroflot championship.
She achieved a performance rating (TPR) of 2657 which is a very good result considering she her
actual ELO is just 2514 only. She played 9 very strong male GMs (+2 =6 -1). Also impressive was she was only seeded 90 but ended up finishing in 24th place.

Here's Kosteniuk's win over GM Kepinski (ELO 2619):

Koneru vs Smeets

2006-02-10T01:53:00.000-08:00

Humpy Koneru of India is continuing her steady improvement in the past few years. She recently completed Corus B group with a minus one score (2580 performance), beating Cheparinov, Smeets, Stellwagen and Lahno along the way.

quote from Susan Polgar Blog

Here's a game showing her prowress beating Smeets.Analysis by Susan Polgar

World Women Championship

2006-02-09T23:24:00.000-08:00

The Women World Chess Championship will take place next month.
Date: March 10-27
Venue: Ekaterinburg, Russia

Exciting times because at least 20 of the active strongest chess players in the world will be fighting for the championship.

Alexandra Kosteniuk is one of the strongest player there. We are sure that the web savvy GM will cover the event well at her website.

The top 10 players taking part:
1 Koneru, Humpy
2 Cramling Pia
3 Kosteniuk, Alexandra
4 Chiburdanidze, Maya
5 Xu, Yuhua
6 Lahno Kateryna
7 Stefanova, Antoaneta
8 Zhu, Chen
9 Kosintseva Nadezhda
10 Hoang Xuan Thanh Khiet
Full list of particpants

Chess Queens

2006-02-09T19:20:00.000-08:00

This blog is to promote chess for girls. Many more females are playing competitive chess and I hope one day girls will make a stronger mark in the chess scene.