Former Women’s World Champion Nona Gaprindashvili recently started to play chess again. She impressively won the 2005 BDO Chess Tournament (Premier Group) in the Netherlands with the score of 6.5 points out of 9 (6 wins, 2 losses and only 1 draw). Her performance rating was an astounding 2510!
http://chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=2621
She followed that up with an excellent start at the World Senior Championship in Italy. Going into the 9th of 11 rounds, we was in a tie for first with the score of 6.5 points out of 8. She drew GM Klovans in round 4 and beat GM Chernikov in round 8. Even though she collapsed and lost the last 3 games to end up in 29th place, she showed that she can still bring her A game.
http://www.prenassi.it/lignano2005/eng/placings.htm
There is a very interesting point to note, when Topalov wins the World Championship next week, Bulgaria will hold the triple-crown in World Championships:
World Women’s Champion: GM A. Stefanova
World Senior Champion: GM L. Spassov
World Champion: GM V. Topalov
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Comments from Gaprindashvili – Polgar,Z 1992: 1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 c6 (I was surprised by this move at first, but after black’s following move it makes sense) 5.e4 b5 6.e5 (Standard opening theory, but I would feel safer with the quiet a3, akin to something white might play in response to the Queenside pawn push in the Najdorf – It’s interesting that e5 is by far the most popular move (according to my database))6…Nd5 7.a4 Bf5 (Very nice change from the usual e6, which would trap the bishop) 8.Be2 b4 9.Nh4 (Fritz recommends this for move 8 rather than 9 – Some ideas: 8.Nh4 Bd7 9.axb5 Nxc3 (cxb5 10.Nxd5 e6 11.Nc3 Qxh4) 10.bxc3 cxb5) bxc3 10.Nxf5 e6 11.Ng3 cxb2 12.Bxb2 Bb4+ (Black has a strong game at this point) 13.Kf1 c3 14.Bc1 0-0 15.Ne4 Nd7 16.Bd3 f5 (Nice move, natural & aggressive, soon will free up the f-file for the rook) 17.exf6 N7xf6 18.Ng5 Qd6 19.Qc2 h6 20.h4 (recalls the move 8.h4! in Alekhin – Gregory, St. Petersburg 1909, or 18.Ng5 in Topalov – Ponomariov, MTel 2005) hxg5 (the sacrifice should be sound, but the position is already difficult for white) 21.hxg5 Ng4 22.Bh7+ Kf7 23.Qe4 Nxf2! 24.Kxf2 Ke7 25.Ke2 (Why not Kg1?) Qg3 White resigns.