Top female chess players facing off
Week long chess festival to be hosted in Kitchener, attracting the best
JILLIAN KASTER

WATERLOO REGION (Jul 24, 2007)

At Iulia Lacau-Rodean’s last tournament she found herself in a familiar situation. She was the only female up against males in the highly competitive game of chess.

“You don’t have a lot of female competition, and you go into competing with males and it feels great winning those competitions, but it’s also discouraging when . . . you don’t have anyone female to compete with,” Lacau-Rodean said.

But that trend is being checked.

Next week, Lacau-Rodean, a graduate of Cameron Heights secondary school, will have the rare chance to play against 10 of Canada’s top 20 female chess players. She is currently ranked sixth.

Kitchener will host the second annual Kitchener Chess Festival from July 31 to Aug. 6. This year’s festival will include the Canadian Chess Championship, the Canadian Amateur tournament and the Canadian Women’s Chess Championship.

Hans Jung, Kitchener’s chess co-ordinator, refers to the latter as chess’s “women’s celebrity championship.”

Here is the full article.

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