Women players at Gibraltar

[Colin Patterson]

Watching the daily results unfold at Gibraltar this year, I got the impression that many of the leading women had noticeably closed the gap on their male counterparts.

For instance, against male opposition of approx 2600 Elo strength and above ...

Nana Dzagnidze - beat Vallejo Pons, Sasikiran - drew Adams.
Salome Melia - beat Kacheishvili, Kotronias - drew Onischuk, Fridman, Harikrishna, Gopal.
Nadezhda Kosintseva - beat Sandipan - drew Gopal, Georgiev, Adams.
Zhu Chen - beat Edouard - drew Kotronias, Roiz.
Irina Krush - beat Nisipeanu - drew Akobian, Sandipan

Of course, The Polgars, Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan didn't even play. So are we witnessing a whole new crop of strong women players coming through? Is there a forseeable end to segregated tournaments?

[LozCooper]

Watching the daily results unfold at Gibraltar this year, I got the impression that many of the leading women had noticeably closed the gap on their male counterparts.

For instance, against male opposition of approx 2600 Elo strength and above ...

Nana Dzagnidze - beat Vallejo Pons, Sasikiran - drew Adams.
Salome Melia - beat Kacheishvili, Kotronias - drew Onischuk, Fridman, Harikrishna, Gopal.
Nadezhda Kosintseva - beat Sandipan - drew Gopal, Georgiev, Adams.
Zhu Chen - beat Edouard - drew Kotronias, Roiz.
Irina Krush - beat Nisipeanu - drew Akobian, Sandipan

Of course, The Polgars, Humpy Koneru and Hou Yifan didn't even play. So are we witnessing a whole new crop of strong women players coming through? Is there a forseeable end to segregated tournaments?

I would like to think so, it's noticeable that a number of the women have broken past 2500 and there are now a number around 2550 and higher. Of the list above, I should mention that Kotronias defaulted against Melia. Ironically, one of the best performing women in 2010, Tatiana Kosinsteva, finished relatively low down.

[Michael Jones]

Someone else evidently thinks the same thing:

Nadezhda Kosintseva drew her last round game, thus cementing her GM norm (that is a performance of 2600 or higher) and she will be awarded the Grandmaster title after all the paperwork and bureaucracy is completed. Salome Melia drew her last round game and also achieved a GM norm. As far I know this was her first and she will need to repeat this twice in order to gain the title. I am old enough to remember the time when there were no female grandmasters. Perhaps it is time for FIDE to consider doing away with separate women’s titles. Is it not somewhat condescending?

- Stewart Reuben's round-up on Chessbase

[Matt Mackenzie]

To answer Stewart's question - no, I don't think we are at the point where we can consider abolishing seperate female titles. Yet

[Colin Patterson]

My other thought was that Gibraltar, as chess venues go, seems very picturesque and friendly - more of a 'holiday' or 'family' atmosphere than the average tournament. Is there any danger that some players (Ivanchuk and Short aside) simply don't play their best fighting chess in such circumstances?

[LozCooper]

My other thought was that Gibraltar, as chess venues go, seems very picturesque and friendly - more of a 'holiday' or 'family' atmosphere than the average tournament. Is there any danger that some players (Ivanchuk and Short aside) simply don't play their best fighting chess in such circumstances?

To restore some balance, much as there were some very positive results for the women players there were also some bad ones, Cramling 2267, Stefanova 2320, T Kosintseva 2463 etc

It's probably a similar story with the men where clearly there were two amazing rating performances and some good and bad.

It is fair to say though that Gibraltar gives the women players a great prize fund and the chance if they perform well to get norms. Although I've never visited, it appears to be a fantastic tournament which is very well run and is growing every year. I hope this trend continues and if they are able to invite more English titled players next year that would be even better.

[Michael Jones]

My other thought was that Gibraltar, as chess venues go, seems very picturesque and friendly - more of a 'holiday' or 'family' atmosphere than the average tournament. Is there any danger that some players (Ivanchuk and Short aside) simply don't play their best fighting chess in such circumstances?

I guess that depends on the individual - some may let themselves be distracted, others will be single-minded enough to put the atmosphere out of their heads and concentrate on playing.

[John Saunders]

My other thought was that Gibraltar, as chess venues go, seems very picturesque and friendly - more of a 'holiday' or 'family' atmosphere than the average tournament. Is there any danger that some players (Ivanchuk and Short aside) simply don't play their best fighting chess in such circumstances?

In a word, no. Though we report writers may to some extent paint Gibraltar as a fun event, there is no question that the large number of professional and semi-professional players who compete there take it very seriously indeed, just as they do any event where their rating is on the line. It would be unfair to both Ivanchuk and Short to suggest that their fellow competitors took the event less seriously than them.

[Stewart Reuben]

Colin Patterson >My other thought was that Gibraltar, as chess venues go, seems very picturesque and friendly - more of a 'holiday' or 'family' atmosphere than the average tournament. Is there any danger that some players (Ivanchuk and Short aside) simply don't play their best fighting chess in such circumstances?<

Of course both John Saunders and I are prejudiced. However, Colin have you played through the games? There were very few GM draws and a huge amount of fighting chess. In my experience, the better the conditions, the better the players play.

At Leonard Barden's suggestion, I started concentrating on popularising women's chess at the Lloyds Bank Masters around about 1980. I was delighted to find a kindred spirit in Brian Callaghan (proprietor of the Caleta Hotel). It is heart-warming that Lawrence Cooper is also continuing in this tradition. There is no doubt women's chess has made great strides. A good example is Maia Chibrudanidze. She was one of the best players in her age group. Then she became Women's World Champion and stopped improving. She had reached the summit in her view. Then along came Pia Cramling who prodded her forward.

Stewart Reuben

[Colin Patterson]

Thanks for all the responses. It's all very interesting, particularly being able to discuss with some of those involved in Gibraltar. I certainly wasn't implying the players take the event any less seriously - as John says, rating points are not easy to come by, so no professional/semi-pro is going to throw them away. Similarly, I can't dispute Stewart's assertion that there was no absence of fighting chess and no plethora of GM draws. Neither did I notice a higher than normal incidence of blunders, which may have indicated that something was up.

Nevertheless, I'm still a bit undecided on this one. Being driven and focused will undoubtedly blot out the distractions. Short and Ivanchuk have those qualities in abundance and I would say that the women IMs would be similarly hard to distract, given that GM norms and extra prize money were on offer. Others, I still think may have let the holiday spirit / excellent conditions knock the edge off their game, or at least inhibit their ability to excel.

Whilst my playing ability probably wouldn't allow me to perceive a subtle shift in someone's play, I'd have to say that Mickey seemed noticeaby subdued by his normal standards and Gawain too, didn't look like the person who had just won the London Classic FIDE Open.

[IM Jack Rudd]

Whilst my playing ability probably wouldn't allow me to perceive a subtle shift in someone's play, I'd have to say that Mickey seemed noticeaby subdued by his normal standards and Gawain too, didn't look like the person who had just won the London Classic FIDE Open.

Mickey was ill. I'm not sure what the situation was with Gawain.

[LozCooper]

Whilst my playing ability probably wouldn't allow me to perceive a subtle shift in someone's play, I'd have to say that Mickey seemed noticeaby subdued by his normal standards and Gawain too, didn't look like the person who had just won the London Classic FIDE Open.

Mickey was ill. I'm not sure what the situation was with Gawain.

Gawain blundered a piece in round 2 and in general had a poor start so never got going, aside from the lost rating points I'm sure he'll be disappointed to have missed out on playing the 2600 and 2700s.