"Snow drops" beat "Old Hands" 16.5-15.5
After rounds 4, 5 and 6 the ladies were leading by a 3-point margin in Marianske Lazne. But, thanks to two strong last two rounds, the "Old Hands" managed to limit their loss against the "Snow Drops" to a minimum: 16.5-15.5. Final report.The Czech Coal Chess Match 2009, a double-round Scheveningen match, took place November 28 - December 5 at the Chrystal Palaca Hotel in Marianske Lazne (the former Marienbad), Czech Republic. The rate of play was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes and 30 seconds increment to finish the game. The tournament was organized by the Prague Chess Society.Rounds 4-8
From our first report we know that the ladies took an early lead. Jana Jackova defeated Viktor Kortchnoi in the first round, but she wouldn't score much more in the rest of her games: only three draws in rounds 4-8.Kortchnoi himself started badly with 0.5/4, but then recovered in the second half with two wins and two draws. It was a similar story to that of the whole "Old Hands" team: a slow start, a better continuation and an excellent finish. The last two matches were both won 2.5-1.5 and so the veterans could leave Marianske Lazne reasonably satisfied. Courteous as they were, they let the ladies win by one point. (Well, courteous except for Viktor Kortchnoi perhaps, who refused to shake hands and sign the score sheet after he lost to Anna Muzychuk in round 3. Unfortunately the living legend has become a bit of a grumpy old man, but we do admire his chess strength at the age of 78...)
Games rounds 4-8
Game viewer by ChessTempo
Humpy Koneru preparing for one of the games, her father sitting next to her
Robert Hübner vs Anna Muzychuk
Jana Jackova vs Viktor Kortchnoi
The 'Snow Drops' consisted of Humpy Koneru...
...Jana Jackova...
...Anna Muzychuk...
...and Kateryna Lahno, playing against...
'Old Hands' Robert Hübner...
...Jan Timman...
...Viktor Kortchnoi...
...and Vlastimil Hort
A pleasant tourney in which young female GMs learnt a lot from experienced and famous GMs
Photos by Vladimir Jagr, courtesy of the tournament website
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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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