Chess Ladies : Anna Zatonskih

Anna Zatonskih (born Mariupol, Ukraine, June 17, 1978) is a chess player from the United States, where as of April 1, 2007, she has the 23rd highest Elo rating on the FIDE list among women (2462). She is a Woman Grandmaster, as well as an International Master. She is a chess professional, who coaches players and competes in tournaments. She is the 2006 and 2008 U.S. Women's Chess Champion.

Zatonskih learned chess at age five from her parents, who are both strong players. Her father Vitaly is rated about 2300, while her mother is a Candidate Master. Anna won against her mother for the first time at age 14.

Anna won many Ukrainian Girls' titles in several age categories. She was awarded the WGM title in 1999. She twice won the Ukrainian Women's Chess Championship, in 2001 and 2002. She represented Ukraine in two Chess Olympiads: in 2000 at Istanbul, she scored 7/11 (+5 =4 -2) on board two; and in 2002 at Bled, she scored 3.5/7 (+2 =3 -2) on board three.

She represented the U.S. in the Chess Olympiads of 2004 and 2006. The Americans won the team silver in 2004, their highest finish ever. Zatonskih won the United States Women's Championship in 2006 and 2008.

Chess Ladies : Zehra Topel

WIM Zehra Topel won the 2007 Turkey Women Championship after already being three-times Turkish U18 champion. This talented and perspective player was born on April 1987 in Shumen, Bulgaria and at the age of 8 she started visiting local chess club in Shumen after her mother taught her how to move pieces.

The family moved to Istanbul, Turkey on 1997 and on 2000 they were granted Turkish citizenship. Currently, Zehra is studying 2nd year of English Philology at the Istanbul University and she is member of the Istanbul Technical University chess club.

Picture of the Day

Yes, Magnus, Andrei Volokitin turned 22 today.
Source : http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=4708

Image Source : http://www.chessbase.com/news/2008/events/foros76.jpg

Chess Jokes : What is a chess program?

"I've created a chess program that mimics human play" said the computer science major.

"So it plays at GM level then?" asks the advising professor.

"No, but it does blame its loss on outside conditions!"

Chess Jokes : Chess has got to go

Berkeley Board of Education voted last night to ban the game of Chess from all of its elementary, junior high and high schools. The board claims that Chess has a negative influence on students because of the backwards and outdated thinking that was responsible for creating the game.

One board member, Claudia Starsniffer, compiled a list of seven grievances against Chess. Starsniffer's list claims,

1. Chess is irrelevant to our society because it was created by dead white guys.
   
   
2. Chess encourages racism by having a 'war' between a white army and a black army.
   
   
3. Chess reinforces current racist tendencies in our society by always having the white army move first.
   
   
4. Chess glorifies war.
   
   
5. Chess oppressively reinforces heterosexual stereotypes. It does this by forcing each army to have a king and a queen and by not allowing the game to be played with either two kings or two queens.
   
   
6. Chess is guilty of breaking the separation of church and state by allowing a bishop to be a belligerent in war.
   
   
7. Chess destroys self-esteem. When children play the game, one always loses. Losing causes a child to feel dumb and inadequate.

Said Starsniffer, "There is no place in our society for a monstrous game like Chess. Chess is dangerous. Chess is destructive. Chess teaches racial and sexual oppression. Chess has got to go!

Chess Funny Video :

Chess Funny Video:

Chess Cartoon : What is draw in chess??