Atalik leads in Istanbul
A special tournament is taking place in Istanbul, Turkey: strong women only. Female players >2460 Elo (or over 2400 and having a GM title) were eligible to play. After six rounds, local favorite IM Ekaterina Atalik is leading with 5/6.The ?Ѭ??Ö?? Bankas?Ѭ± Atat?ɬºrk International Women Masters Chess Tournament is being held for the first time, 10-21 March 2008. The venue is the top floor of the ?Ѭ??Ö?? Bankas?Ѭ± Towers Complex and the prize fund is 16,000 dollar (plus appearance fee). The organizers have shown quite some ambition:
As the chess world knows, nowadays there are legendary tournaments like Linares, Corus, Dortmund ?¢‚Ǩ‚Äú for top men in chess. The Turkish Chess Federation, with the sponsorship of ?Ѭ??Ö?? Bankas?Ѭ±, wants to start a legendary tournament for women chess. The tournament will be organised every year, and the top women by invitation will be accepted in the ?Ѭ??Ö?? Bankas?Ѭ± - Atat?ɬºrk International Women Masters Chess Tournament.The Chinese talent Hou Yifan had a great start with 3.5 / 4, while former world champion Zhu Chen hadn't collected any (half) points yet by then. By winning her last two rounds, against Ushenina and Yildiz, Ekaterina Atalik took clear first.[TABLE=190]
Ekaterina Atalik (2408 TUR)
Zhu Chen (2548, CHN)
Harika Dronavalli (2455, IND)
Hou Yifan (2527, CHN)
Irina Krush (2473, USA)
Anna Ushenina (2484, UKR)
Betul Cemre Yildiz (2207, TUR)
Lela Javakhishvili (2470, GEO)
Zhao Xue (2517, CHN)
Pia Cramling (2524, SWE)
Photos: ?É‚Äìzg?ɬºr AkmanLinks:
- Tournament website
- Games in PGN
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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