2011/03/15

Of Beauty and Wisdom

 
Beauty is contextual. And that is why beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder. It is not constant. It fluctuates, like the ebb and flow of the la mar. With different pairs of eyes comes different version of beauty. Some loves flame-like passion. Some loves breeze-like grace. Some loves autumn-leave-like sorrowfulness.

While beauty is more common in entertainment circle, it has also found its own place in other fields especially in chess. There has been a comprehensive effort of documenting photogenic chess players or even grandmasters but most of them are nothing more than a list of pictures.

Beauty & Chess

Alexandra Kosteniuk  (born April 23, 1984)
Born in Perm, Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, she is Women’s World Chess Champion in 2008-2010. At a tender age of 17, she already made it to the final of the Women’s World Chess Championship. When she was 20, she became the tenth woman to receive the highest title of FIDE, International Grandmaster. More interestingly, she has been the ambassador of chess while being a fashion model. There are even people who call her “Maria Sharapova of chess.” You may catch up with her podcasts through her personal website, Kosteniuk.com.
Alexandra Kosteniuk 1Alexandra Kosteniuk 5


Almira Skripchenko (born February 17, 1976)

From France, she is the winner of the second European Open Women's Chess Championship in 2001. When Moldova (her birthplace) became independent of Russia, she rose to her fame by becoming the champion of World Youth Chess Championships (Under 16) in 1991. Starting to play chess at 6, she married twice. Both her ex and current husband are French Grandmaster. (Joël Lautier and then, Laurent Fressinet) Yet one more trivia of her is that she is an avid poker card player. In 2009, she bagged home $78,664 when she finished seventh in the World Series of Poker No Limit Texas hold 'em tournament.

Almira Skripchenko 1Almira Skripchenko 2Almira Skripchenko 3

Anastasia Gavrilova  (born 1990)
Not much information about her can be found online. According to the FIDE database, she is a Women FIDE Master from Switzerland. She got her WF Master title at the age of 15 (year 2006). She is currently ranked 746th among female player in the world.

Anastasia Gavrilova 1Anastasia Gavrilova 2Anastasia Gavrilova 3

Kateryna Lahno (born December 27, 1989)

Kateryna, from Ukraine, has obtained World Grandmaster title at the age of 12, even earlier than Anastasia. In fact, she has broken the record held by Judit Polgar for this. When she was just 15, she won the 2005 European Individual Women's Championship. She is now ranked seventh among women players in the world. Like Almira, she is also married to a Grandmaster, Robert Fontaine (also a reporter).

Kateryna Lahno 6Kateryna Lahno 1Kateryna Lahno 3
Kateryna Lahno when she is still young.
Kateryna Lahno 4








Monika Seps (born February 22, 1986)

Born in Switzerland and educated in biology at ETH Zurich (Albert Einstein's alma meter), Monika is a World International Master (WIM) currently ranked 442th among female players in the world. She earned her FIDE Master in 2005 and then, WIM in 2006. She has been the Swiss Female Champion for year 2001, 2002, 2005 and 2007. She lost her title to Tatiana Lematschko for the years in between.

Monika Seps 1Monika Seps 5Monika Seps 4
Monika Seps 7


Sanja Dedijer (born 1986)
Representing Bosnia & Herzegovina, she is now ranked 1190th among female players in the world without any FIDE title. She played in Torino Chess Olympiad 2006.


        Sanja Dedijer 1Sanja Dedijer 2


Sophie Milliet (born November 2, 1983)

Raised in a French town, Castelnau-le-Lez, she is now the French female champion who is ranked 74th among female players in the world. She was awarded the International Master title in March 2009, in respect of norms earned at the French Club Championship (2005), the Swiss Championship at Lenzerheide (2006) and the Béthune Open (2008)

  Sophie Milliet 1Sophie Milliet 3Sophie Milliet 7Sophie Milliet 6


Vesna Rozic (born 1987)

She is Slovenian Women International Master (WIM) currently ranked 238th among all active female players in the world. She is the female champion for the Slovenian Chess Championship 2007.
Vesna Rozic 1
           Vesna Rozic 2Vesna Rozic 3


Zhu Chen (born March 16, 1976)

Born in Wenzhou, Zhejiang, she is a chess Grandmaster. In 2001, she became China's second women's world chess champion after Xie Jun. At the age of 25 she defeated Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia in a tournament for the 2001/2002 Women's World Chess Championship, by 5-3. Educated in the premier college Tsinghua University, Zhu Chen is married to Qatari Grandmaster Mohamad Al-Modiahki.

Zhu Chen 1Zhu Chen 2Zhu Chen 2  Zhu Chen 3


You might be wondering why the chess players on this list are from Russia (and former Russian regimes), Ukraine, France and China. This is because that these are the countries with highest number of Grandmaster and International Master as seen from the list done by FIDE.
Average GMs IMs Total Titled
Russia 2732 204 474 2010
Ukraine 2697 76 196 467
China 2657 27 20 104
Armenia 2656 33 19 75
France 2650 42 91 326

Another thing you can notice is that most of them earned their Grandmaster title in a rather young age. Chess is, in fact, the only sport where children can par with adults. From the list, too, we can see that quite a few Grandmasters are married to fellow Grandmasters. Could it be just coincidence? I don’t have the complete statistic to make any judgment. Do share with me if you have found it.

If you can see, this list is arranged purely by their initials. The ranking is up to you. So, who among them makes it to the top of your list? Or, who have I missed?
































                                                                                                                                                                  

Comments are welcomed and encouraged on ZewSays.com, but there are some instances where comments will be edited or deleted as follows:
1) Comments deemed to be spam or questionable spam will be deleted. Including a link to relevant content is permitted, but comments should be relevant to the post topic.
2) Comments including profanity will be deleted.
3) Comments containing language or concepts that could be deemed offensive will be deleted.
4) Comments that attack a person individually will be deleted.
The owner of this blog reserves the right to edit or delete any comments submitted to this blog without notice. This comment policy is subject to change at anytime.
Facebook Blogger Plugin: Created by ZewSays.com

2 comments:

  1. A quick view at Alexandra Kosteniuk's LinkedIn profile could tell you how impressive she is. She owns at least 10 chess related website. Some of them include Chesspics.com and Chessmovies.com.
    She is also actively involved in chess education and modeling.
    Her resume. http://www.linkedin.com/in/alexandrakosteniuk

    ReplyDelete
  2. Learn the basics of chess through her instructional video http://www.chessmovies.com/index.php?id=149

    ReplyDelete

Related Posts with Thumbnails