Chess lovers gripped by forthcoming European championships
Top seed Dzagnidze expected to challenge for honours
The excitement is mounting for Tbilisi’s chess enthusiasts as the opening ceremony of the European Women’s Chess Championship approaches.
In less than two weeks the Georgian capital will play host to the illustrious tournament for the first time with Europe’s finest female chess players competing at the Sheraton Metechi Palace from May 7-18.
The inaugural championship in 2000 was held in Batumi and after an eleven year absence Georgia will again be the centre of attention for European Women’s Chess.
It was recently announced that a field of 130 competitors from representing 26 nations from across the continent will descend on Tbilisi next month.
Not surprisingly, Georgia will be heavily represented at the Championships with 46 players hoping to delight the home crowd.
During the Soviet era, Georgia produced a plethora of dynamic chess talents and were constantly among the medals at both European and World level.
However, Georgian chess has experienced some lean times since then and no Georgian woman has taken a medal at the European Individual Championships since 2001 when Ketevan Arakhamia claimed bronze in Warsaw, Poland.
Bidding to end a decade long drought of European medals for Georgia will be number one seed Nana Dzagnidze.
The 24-year old is viewed as Georgia’s brightest female chess talent and certainly their best hope for a medal in Tbilisi.
Dzagnidze burst on to the scene in 1999 at the World Girls Under-12 Championship where she won gold before also winning the World Girls Under-20 Championship in 2003 at the tender age of 16.
Such formidable success in her teens saw her establish herself as a fixture on the Georgian Chess Olympiad squad. In 2008 in Dresden, Germany she was instrumental in helping the Georgians claim the gold medal, taking 7 points from a possible 10.
In the same year, Dzagnidze was awarded the title of Grand Master, following in the footsteps of some of the most revered players in Georgian chess history.
In July 2010 she won the Grand Prix tournament where she was unbeaten in an eleven match round-robin contest.
Hope for the Georgian are high next month but she will face stiff competition from the Kosintseva sisters, Nadezhda and Tatiana from Russia, seeded second and third respectively.
Nadezhda, much like Dzagnidze, was a precocious talent in her youth. She earned three gold medals at the European Youth Championships, at under-10, under-12 and under-18 level.
In 2005, at the age of 20, she claimed silver at the 2005 European Women’s Championships in Moldova and will be looking to go one better six years on in Tbilisi.
Her younger sister Tatiana has fearsome record in the Championships, having won gold in Dresden in Germany and again two years later in St Petersburg. A third European gold would be an unprecedented achievement.
Elsewhere, reigning champion Pia Cramling, who will also be going for a third gold having won the 2003 Championships in Istanbul, is seeded in 9th place. The Lithuanian Viktorija Cmilyte was runner-up last year in Croatia and is seeded sixth this time.
Interestingly, seeded in fifteenth is the Georgian-born Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant who will be representing her adopted country of Scotland. She was the last player to earn a medal for Georgia at the Championships and will be aiming to become the first to do so for Scotland next month.
The head referee for the Championships will be Nana Aleksandria while the President of the Georgian Chess Federation, Gio Giorgadze, has been named as director of the tournament.
By Alastair Watt
22.04.2011
Source: http://www.georgiatoday.ge
She’ll win.