Humpy Koneru and Tatiana Kosintseva are the winners

In Istanbul, Humpy Koneru (India) won the first FIDE Women Grand Prix. In St. Petersburg Tatiana Kosintseva was the strongest at the European Women Championship. A wrap-up of two top-level women events that finished this week. Istanbul The 1st FIDE Women Grand Prix took place March 5-20 in Istanbul, Turkey. Humpy Koneru, Hou Yifan, Antoaneta Stefanova, Pia Cramling, Marie Sebag, Maia Chiburdanidze, Zhao Xue, Martha Fierro, Elina Danielian, Shen Yang, Zeinab Mamedjarova and Bet?ºl Cemre Yildiz played a 12-player round-robin with a total prize fund is ‚Ǩ 60,000.

15-year-old Chinese GM Hou Yifan had an excellent start and was leading the pack after five rounds with 4.5 points. She continued strongly and defeated both Martha Fierro and Humpy Koneru in rounds 6 and 7, but then lost her first game to compatriot Zhao Xue, who took over the lead with 7.0/8.

Hou then rew twice and after the penultimate round she was sharing the lead with Koneru and Zhao Xue, who had lost to Sebag. In a dramatic last round Zhao Xue lost to Danielian, who thus scored her second GM norm, while Sebag blundered heavily against Koneru, who managed to score 2.5 out of 3 after her loss against Hou Yifan.

And so the Indian finished clear first with 8.5/11, winning the first FIDE Women Grand Prix. The system is the same as the men's GP: a series of six tournaments held over two years (2009-2010) with a total of 18 players who will all play in 4 tournaments consisting of 12 players. The winner of the Women Grand Prix series at the end of 2010 will play the Women World Champion in the third quarter of 2011 in a ten game match for the Women's World Championship title.
[TABLE=668]

All games

St. Petersburg The 10th European Individual Women's Chess Championship took place 7-19 March in St. Petersburg, Russia. The rules were similar to the men's tournament: an 11-round Swiss with over 150 players from which the 14 best will qualify for the next Women World Championship. Top participants were Anna Muzychuk, Nana Dzagnidze, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, Anna Ushenina, Natalia Zhukova, Kateryna Lahno and the Kosintseva sisters.

IM Lilit Mkrtchian and IM Tatiana Kosintseva finished shared first and just like in the men's tournament, the day after tiebreaks were held. Kosintseva won the first of two rapid games and drew the second, to become European Champion again - just like in 2007 when she scored an amazing 10/11 in Dresden.
[TABLE=667]

All games by Tatiana Kosintseva

Links:

• Official website Grand Prix Istanbul
• Games Grand Prix Istanbul in PGN
• Official website European Women Ch
• Games European Ch in PGN