Photo by Betsy Dynako
In addition to winning the 2009 US Women’s Championship, IM Anna Zatonskih also won the 2009 Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award, sponsored by Goddesschess (http://goddesschess.blogspot.com). Her final score is 8.5 / 9 (8 wins, 1 draw, 0 loss).
Congratulations to Anna for her spectacular performance!
Final standings:
| 1 | Anna Zatonskih | 2492 | 2462 | x | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 8½ |
| 2 | Camilla Baginskaite | 2356 | 2317 | ½ | x | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6½ |
| 3 | Alisa Melekhina | 2253 | 2220 | 0 | ½ | x | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 5½ |
| 4 | Irina Krush | 2490 | 2458 | 0 | 1 | ½ | x | 0 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 5½ |
| 5 | Tatev Abrahamyan | 2342 | 2275 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | x | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4 |
| 6 | Sabina Foisor | 2379 | 2320 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | x | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3½ |
| 7 | Rusudan Goletiani | 2437 | 2391 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | x | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3½ |
| 8 | Iryna Zenyuk | 2271 | 2285 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | x | ½ | 1 | 3 |
| 9 | Battsetseg Tsagaan | 2265 | 2258 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | x | 1 | 2½ |
| 10 | Yun Fan | 2134 | 1935 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | x | 2½ |
Official website: http://www.saintlouischessclub.org/US-Womens-Championship-2009
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
Well done Anna!
Anna, you’re the best, but let there be no rest. Study more, have some fun, life is short, get things done.
Congratulations to IM Anna Zatonskih for winning her third US title and her first Goddesschess Fighting Chess Award. What a fantastic tournament and an outstanding performance by Anna.
Jan Newton
http://www.Goddesschess.com
May I be allowed to ask a question? Mrs. Foisor played one move before she would get a checkmate, according to Fritz8. Why did she not play another move to see if her opponent would see and give the checkmate? Why resign exactly where she did? Is this a rule?
Did Anna train with Kasparov before?
HuH? Susan what is fighting chess? garry stuff! Susan i got caught today on the chesspark server! trying to play cheapchess do i get any awards from the Assizes? hehe!
Dear Anna, it’s late in the night, and I’ve been thinking, he was not right, Bobby Fischer could not give you the odds of a knight, and hope to win that fight.
Congratulations to Anna! I know there are people who will talk about the level of competition, but 8.5/9 is an amazing achievement. I was especially encouraged by how hard she fought even once the championship was in hand. Remarkable!
8.5/9 is a phenomenal performance. Wow!
Wow Yun Fan won a second game missed it !! what happened? whod she beat? Yo Susan i hear Bobby meet you 3 he forgot about that knights odds nonsense huh? hehe.That man silly he gonna tell garry ur the best at the old chess! hehe., Susan that guy too much, i remember he took a bishop from lil Krushie, Krushie on ICC though! in a Nimzo! she tried to get cute and played a NO-velty! haha.
‘I know there are people who will talk about the level of competition’
The level was good enough to have hopes for Anna becoming World Champion soon.
Happy birthday to the hottest Bulgarian chess babe – WGM Maria Velcheva!
Shouldn’t Anna get a GM norm for this result? Her performance rating was well over 2600 FIDE and this event is a type of continental championship much like the one that Robson won for his last GM norm.
If somefolks question the level of the competition, that means, IMHO, they haven’t looked at the games themselves and gone through them with an unbiased eye. The last four rounds – 6 through 9 – ALL DECISIVE GAMES. This may be a record in a championship/major event – men’s too.
Zatonskih’s performance rating speaks for itself.
Strip away the names and the ratings of the players and publish these games to a panel of top-level male and female players and ask them to pick out the games played by females only, female v. male, and male v. male. Bet there would be some interesting opinions tendered!
I believe this was the greatest USWCC on record.
Jan Newton
http://www.goddesschess.com
http://www.goddesschess.blogspot.com
‘Strip away the names and the ratings of the players and publish these games to a panel of top-level male and female players and ask them to pick out the games played by females only, female v. male, and male v. male. Bet there would be some interesting opinions tendered!’
I could pick out the women’s games blindfolded.
What is this constant obsession that since there were a ton of decisive games somehow that means the level of the games/competition was high? Generally games between five years olds who just learned how to play will also be decisive, that doesn’t mean the games are good though.
‘What is this constant obsession that since there were a ton of decisive games somehow that means the level of the games/competition was high?’
Uneducated chess population makes up 99% of the chess world. It will only get worse with the Internet spreading.
Ches beaurocrats and the weak chess audience want blood, not draws. They want players killing each other during the games. Only difference is they don’t support physical damages.