Cristina Foisor in India

     A very interesting event is to start today, in Bhubaneswar- India.

     It is a 12 players, women's round robin- as you can see above a very strong one, with Elisabeth Paehtz, Elina Danielyan, Lilit Mkrtchian, Olga Girya, Qi Guo, Mary Ann Gomes, Eesha Karavade, Nisha Mohota, Rout Padmini, Swati Ghate, Kiran Manisha Mohanty. Our 1st board from the World Teams - Cristina Foisor is among the particiapants. Here's the official site of the event: http://odishachess.com/#

   

Cristina Foisor

       I wish Cristina the best of luck!

Battle of sexes

     I like watching games of strong chess players and I enjoy them even more when it's a battle of sexes. Women become stronger and stronger and it's not easy at all when a 2450 lady plays against a 2450 man (and if to make the lady pretty- the balance is set in our favour) ;)

     The first games that I watch when there's a live broadcast of a tournament are the women's ones and the ones where black won, beacause I find them the most inspiring. Here's a 2 in 1, from the yesterday's matches in Bundesliga:

   

Elisabeth Paehtz

   This game has impressed me with it's clearness and harmony between positional and tactical ideas. Black had a small edge during the whole game, from the moment when white made the uninspired exchange on "c2". It was nice to see how black's advantage was growing move by move. I appreciate much more a good strategical game than a "pif-paf" one, because everyone can calculate a combination, but not everyone can understand a position. If to believe the statisctics, when a 2450+ woman wins against a man player who has the same or even higher Elo- it's usually an attacking game that culminates with a final tactical blow. Well, the statistics might want to get refreshed, because women prove to be able to do strategics and endgames too and on a high level.