Kindergarten Chess Lesson by Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk

We hope you’ll like this 18-minute Youtube video of Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk introducing the game of chess to a kindergarten class in the USA. If you do please Like this post! Enjoy!
Read more…

Alexandra Kosteniuk Defends Master Thesis on Preschool Chess Education

As you may know in 2003 I graduated from the Russian State University of Physical Education and Sport with a B.A. degree in Physical Education and Sport. This is the institute where many world level athletes have studied, such as Ilya Kovalchuk, Pavel Bure, Svetlana Khorkina, Anna Chicherova, Yaroslav Rybakov, Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Feofanova, Svetlana Zhurova, Pavel Kolobkov, and many more. Now 10 years later, yesterday, June 10, at the Moscow State Academy of Physical Education and Sport I defended a thesis about the pre-school pedagogical technology for chess that I developed and am using in my pre-school chess school in Moscow (where kids from 3 to 7 years old study chess and prepare for school). It is most useful to show the world that chess helps kids do well at school and that it is a great game that parents can teach their kids anytime after age 4.

Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk’s Peace Message: Play Chess, No Wars!

Below you will find a 4-minute interview I gave last time I was in Sochi at the Peace & Sports Forum. I consider it my duty to do the most I can to promote Peace in the World, and Chess helps me to do that! Watch the video to see my message of Peace.

You will recall I was named Champion for Peace (see Press Release, see the current champions for Peace, among which you will find champions Novak Djokovic, Yelena Isinbayeva, Paula Radcliffe, Marie-José Pérec and many more) and inaugurated a Chess for Peace program in Puerto Tejada, Colombia. I also supported the project “Chess for Creativity and Leadership” in Palestine.

Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk is the Chess Cover Story in Echo Magazine in Switzerland

While I was playing in the Geneva Grand Prix last week (see my report for the moment in Russian and in English thanks to Google Translate), the French-Swiss magazine Echo came out with an article about chess, and I made the cover with it.
Check it out below or read it on the Magazine’s site.
Read more…

Chess Music Videos with Photos of Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk

Hello everyone! A Russian fan contacted me on Twitter to let me know that he published 2 music videos with slideshows of some of my photos. The first song is truly a chess song, called “e2-e4″ by the Russian group “Recital” of 1984 (that’s the year I was born) and with chess lyrics, the singer is Alexander Kalyanov. The second is by the group VIA, music by Viacheslav Dobrynin, and singer Alexei Kondakov. Both videos are embedded below. Please “like” the videos and my post, and share on Twitter and Facebook!

Read more…

How Alexandra Kosteniuk became the Chess Queen ®

Hello everybody!

Lots of people have asked me why I’m called the “Chess Queen”, so I decided to write an illustrated post about it. It all started in 2001, when I was 17 years old. My rating was 2469 and I had the titles of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and Men International Master (IM).

Read more…

7th Alexandra Kosteniuk Chess Cup U-6, U-8, U-10 in Kaliningrad, Russia, October 19-20, 2013

Dear friends!

As you know, each year I organize a tournament for kids U-6, U-8, U-10, with many prizes and no entry fee, so I am glad to let you know that this year it will take place again!

The 7th Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Chess Cup will take place on October 19 and 20, 2013 in the city of Kaliningrad, Russia. All kids born in 2003 and younger are invited to take part in this tournament. There is no entry fee and each participant gets a present.




Read more…

Foundation Neva FIDE Women’s Chess Grand-Prix in Geneva, Kosteniuk Report (Russian)

Below you will find my Russian language report about the Fondation Neva FIDE Women’s Grand-Prix in Geneva (Russian Report). If you’d like to see the English Google Translate version of my post, click here.




Со 2 по 16 мая 2013 в Женеве при поддержке фонда «Нева»  прошел 1-й турнир серии Гран-При ФИДЕ 2013-2014 среди женщин. Турнир собрал очень сильный состав. Средний рейтинг участниц был равен 2510. В упорной и небезошибочной борьбе первое место с прекрасным результатом 8 из 11 заняла Бела Хотенашвили из Грузии.

Для меня Read more…

Kosteniuk at Nashville Chess SuperNationals with 5335 players

I just got back from the largest rated chess tournament ever, the 2013 SuperNationals, to which I was invited to open the event, and to play a chess simultaneous exhibition at the start of the event! I had a couple book signings in the bookstore on Friday and Saturday, and the lines were huge and did not stop during the 4+ hours I was there. Below you can see a few photos and a couple videos by the USCF so you can sense the great chess atmosphere present.

Read more…

Kosteniuk International Chess Travels and TravelTipz Reviews

Hi everyone! Right now I’m in Nashville, Tennessee, at the USCF Supernational 2013, having a great time and very excited to see so many young chess players around me, I’ll soon make a post with photos and news about it. In a few days I will be playing at the Russian Team Chess Championship in Sochi, then in May I have a very strong FIDE Grand-Prix tournament in Geneva and in-between my chess tournaments I always make sure to come back to Miami to rejuvenate and to spend as much time with my family as possible. That is one of the greatest advantages of being a chess professional – to be able to travel so much and to see so many new places around the world.Since I love traveling so much and to share my traveling experience with others, it is with great pleasure that I accepted an offer from the Russian web-site – TravelTipz.ru to write regular reviews about the hotels where I stay, the restaurants which I discover and different activities I take part in during my trips. I will share my reviews on my site, Twitter and Facebook. My first review will be about the huge hotel Gaylord Opryland in Nashville, coming up soon! I hope you will like it and it may be useful to you!

Russia gets Bronze at the 2013 Astana World Team Chess Championships

The 2013 Astana World Team Championships ended with the victory of the Ukrainian team with their top formation (Lahno, Ushenina, M. Muzychuk, Zhukova and Gaponenko), congratulations to a great team! The silver and bronze was taken by two teams that were not able to align their best formations, first China playing without Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue, and second Russia (Gunina, Kosteniuk, Pogonina, Galliamova, and Girya) playing without the Kosintseva sisters. My (Russian) team did well, with 4 players out of 5 receiving individual board medals (super performance by Olga Girya with 6.5/8 on the last board). I started on a roll with 4.5/5 and even though I lost the last 2 games, still ended up with a performance of 2502 and just about 1 Elo point gained. More info and photos about the event can be found below. I hope to comment one or more games soon for my YouTube channel. Read also the report on USA’s top chess blog www.chessblog.com.
Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk gets Order for Merit to the Fatherland

At the same time as I received the Certificate of Honorable Master of Sports of Russia last week (see post), I received officially the Medal and booklet representing the Order For Merit to the Fatherland. The certificate to me, Alexandra Kosteniuk was signed by President Medvedev. This award was given based on my win of the women’s world chess crown in 2008, and is extremely rare, even in the second class. Read about the Order For Merit to the Fatherland on Wikipedia. It shows how important Russia considers the game of chess and values champions who have brought fame to their country.

Read more…

Chess Memorial Razuvaev Announced in Washington, DC on August 6-12, 2013

I have confirmed my participation in this year’s Memorial Razuvaev, which will take place on August 6-12, in Washington, DC. The tournament has been announced by the Maryland Chess Association, by ChessBlog and ChessDom. A team of women (GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, WGM Anna Zatonskih, WGM Irina Krush, WGM Elena Sedina) will battle a team of seniors (GM Adrian Mikhalchishin, GM Boris Gulko, GM Vladimir Tukmakov, GM Lev Alburt). You will recall that GM Yuri Razuvaev was my coach, who passed away a little over a year ago. He helped me become women’s world chess champion in 2008. More information can be found below.

Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk Top Woman at Super Strong Aeroflot Blitz Tournament

Many people know that I love playing blitz chess, from my YouTube channel and from my DVD “Chess Blitz Fever“. Yesterday I played in what may be the one of the strongest blitz open tournaments ever, the Aeroflot Blitz Open, with over 270 players, of which 107 players were Grandmasters, and in total 182 titled players. Ian Nepomniachtchi won with 15.5/18 followed by Peter Svidler and Grischuk. I was the best woman with 11 points and the 48th rank, followed by Harika 72nd, Tatiana Kosintseva 92nd, Lahno 93rd, Zhukova 117th. It was a tremendously strong tournament. My performance was 2632, which makes my FIDE rating go from 2581 to 2612 in the next Official March 1 FIDE Blitz Rating List, that’s a new record for me! You can see my detailed results and the complete rankings. My best result was to beat 2-0 each in our mini-matches GM Bukavshin (2697) and GM Kobalia (2636). See also the reports by top USA blogs ChessBlog, ChessDom, and Chessvibes. NEW! 3 GAME VIDEOS POSTED BELOW!
Read more…

Kosteniuk Chess Stamp from Mozambique

Thanks to my Twitter follower who sent me as a gift this original stamp from Mozambique. It’s great they came out with a chess collection, that can help popularize the game. I have a whole collection of chess stamps from all over the world, but usually from small countries. It would be nice if a major country would issue chess stamps, that would do a lot for chess. If you have any chess stamps, please send me a scan!
Read more…

New Chess Queen & Chess King eBay Store

I just opened my new “Chess King” eBay store, and posted some of the most popular items from our Chess King Shop. Since I just started, there are few bids and the prices may be unbelievably low, some prices are only 10% of the list price. Check it out! –> Link to the Chess King eBay Store. I will try to create new auctions when old ones end so you should be able to get good deals at any time.

Read more…

Play with Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk at Nashville SuperNationals on April 4, 2013!

Today the USCF has announced that 12th Women’s World Chess Champion and Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk has been invited to the Nashville Chess SuperNationals, which take place Friday, April 5th through Sunday April 7th, 2013 at the Gaylord Opryland Resort in Nashville, Tennessee. The SuperNationals is the largest event run by the USCF. More than 5,000 scholastic chess players are expected to attend, putting it among the largest chess events ever held. Alexandra will play a simul on Thursday at 2 PM. Here is the official page about the SuperNationals. Since the simul is limited to a maximum of 40 players, it’s recommended to sign up early. See you there!

New YouTube Chess Video: Kosteniuk – Hou Yifan, SportAccord Mind Sport Games 2012

I just uploaded a new chess video to my YouTube Channel “ChessQueen“. It’s my game against 13th women’s world chess champion Hou Yifan, played last month at the Sport Accord Mind Sports Games in Beijing. The game is a complicated Sicilian Defence, Scheveningen variation, where I go all out for an attack on the black king. I won the game in 26 moves. If you like it, please click the “Thumbs Up” button in YouTube, the “Share” button on Facebook, and Retweet on Twitter! Let me know in the comments if you like the video and if you’d like me to make more chess videos, and if yes, what kinds of chess videos. In the video I use the software “Chess King“. Enjoy!

Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk’s FIDE Chess Ratings Up over 100 Elo from 2012

I had great success last year playing chess tournaments, and was able to increase my FIDE Elo ratings by more than 100 Elo points on average from January 2012 to January 2013. You can see my FIDE rating card here. My ratings are now as follows: Classical: 2495, Rapid: 2575, Blitz: 2581.
My best results in 2012 were:
• European Rapid Championship: Silver
• World Rapid Championship: Silver
• Team Russian Championship: Team Bronze
• Team Russian Championship: Individual Silver
• Swiss Championship: Bronze
• Istanbul Olympiads: Team Gold
• Istanbul Olympiads: Individual Bronze
• European Club Cup: Individual Gold
• Mind Sport Games: Blitz Gold
(see my full 2012 review)




I hope to do well also in 2013, I’ll also be training a lot and playing many tournaments.
Alexandra Kosteniuk
12th women’s world chess champion




Wonderful Chess Letters from Vicky Guadagno’s Students

Hello everyone! I was so happy today to receive a huge box filled with wonderful chess letters from Vicky Guadagno’s 2nd grade chess students from P.S. 18 in Queens (New York), with beautiful drawings, wishes, even gifts! I will treasure them! Vicky tells me chess is as popular as ever at her school, that’s great, although I am sure a lot has to do with the fact Vicky is the teacher. Below I thank everyone who sent me letters. I will be putting in the mail today some chess gifts for all of Vicky’s chess students to enjoy! Check out Vicky Guadagno’s LinkedIn Profile, Facebook Page, Web site.

Read more…

Dr Laura Ciel Live Radio Interview of Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk

Yesterday January 9 I was interviewed live on top rated Dr Laura Ciel Radio Show. You can listen to it here. The Dr Laura Ciel Show Is A Global Talk Show With The Intent To Inspire People Who Find Themselves In A Place Of Frustration, Sadness, Despair, Grief, Anger, Crisis Or Chaos To Create The Life They Want To Live. Through Your Questions, Information And Guest Interviews Listeners Will Be Inspired To Drop Their Excuses And Start Living The Life They Want Right Now Whether It Is In The Areas Of Personal Achievement, Relationships, Career+Money And/Or Health+Body. You can read about Dr. Laura’s Ciel show here.

Russian Scientific Documentary about the Super Brain of Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk

We were able to get hold of the 27-minute Russian scientific documentary produced for the Russian TV channel “Russia 2″ last month and called “Супер Мозг” = “Super Brain”. The game of chess is used to show how the brain works. The video features 12th Women’s World Chess Champion and Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk, who goes through several scientific experiments, including a brain tomography while solving a chess problem. Experiments are also conducted with male GM Alexander Riazantsev to see if there are any differences between men’s and women’s brains. There are differences. The video is in Russian, note that you can use the “subtitles” feature of YouTube, it’s wonderful, the subtitles are translated on the fly, mouse over the arrow in the bottom right of the player and then choose the CC option to see the captions menu. Once you do, you will see the default language and the ability to “translated” the captions. Once you click on “translate,” you will be able to choose from 35 different languages.
Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk Reviews her Chess Year 2012

My 2012 competition chess year is over! It was filled with interesting games, exciting discoveries, beautiful combinations and sad omissions. In this post I review my 2012 chess year so I can move forward to my competition year 2013. Overall the year 2012 was quite successful for me – I increased my rating by 50 points to 2495 Elo as well as got new great rapid (2575) and blitz (2581) ratings. I was able to win several important events. In this post I share with you (in Russian for the moment – use Google Translate for full text in English – but you get to see the photos and games) the most important and memorable events of 2012.
Read more…

Regina degli Scacchi Kosteniuk featured in Italian new Magazine SPQ&R

A new magazine is born in Italy! Scacchi, Pugilato, Qualcos’altro e Rugby (SPQ&R) is a magazine that puts together some sports that are not mainstream in Italy (chess, boxing, rugby and chessboxing). It wants to popularise these by offering enough pages of each sport to have a varied readership that can get to know the other sports. The magazine looks at each sport from a multiplicity of angles: exclusive interviews and reports, articles about the history and artistic side of the sports and plenty of interdisciplinary articles such as: chess and travel, chess and art, rugby and pugilism, chess and martial arts, boxing and cinema and so on. Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk is featured on the cover of this new magazine and comments one of her games. You can download the whole first issue for free here.

Read more…

Chess Queen™ Kosteniuk was at the Peace and Sport Sochi Forum

This week an 8-minute video interview by Peace and Sport was published, with Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk, a Champion for Peace (see Press Release) in the organization Peace and Sport supported by H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, speaking of her love of chess and how chess and sport can promote peace in the world. Alexandra was at the 2012 Sochi Forum, together with other great champions, such as Elena Isinbayeva. You will recall that Alexandra inaugurated the chess program in Puerto Tejada, Colombia and has supported the chess program in Palestine/Israel. Read the full report of the Sochi Conference at this link and check out some photos below.

Read more…

Sign up for my Chess Queen™ & Chess King™ Newsletter

Hello everyone! I am working on a Newsletter in which I will let you know about my results, games, videos, activities, and offer super chess discounts for my Chess King Training suite of products. I will also run competitions with prizes, and inform you of how I am playing and where you can watch my games, in an applet or in video. You can sign up at one of several places, here on www.chessqueen.com (right column), www.chessblog.com, www.chess-king.com or www.facebook.com/chessqueen. It’s enough to subscribe just once, just make sure you confirm you want to subscribe when the conformation email comes.

Vedomosti’s Magazine features Chess Queen™ Kosteniuk and Gangi’s Scacco Matto GMT3

The November issue of Vedomosti’s magazine “Kak Potratit’” (translated as “How to Spend”), features 4 famous sports people who have lent their names to western brands of watches: 1. Alexandra Kosteniuk, 12th women’s world chess champion, who teamed up with Gangi to create the Scacco Matto GMT3, 2. Lionel Messi, soccer player of FC Barcelona, who lent his name to Audemars Piguet Royal Oak, 3. Alexei Nemov, 12-time Olympic medalist in Gymnastics who helped create the IWC Big Pilot Limited Edition, and last but not least 4. Evgeni Plushenko, the most well known figure skating star of all times, who has partnered with Ulysse Nardin Champion’s Diver Limited Edition watch. Read the full article here.




Read the press release of Alexandra’s cooperation with Gangi, Alexandra’s blog post with photos here, and all the photos of the Scacco Matto GMT3 Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Read more…

Artist Natalia Vasilyeva paints Chess Queen™ Kosteniuk

I would like to thank Moscow graphic artist Natalia Vasilyeva (have a look at her illustration blog) who made this very nice drawing of me. Natalia is well known on Instagram under the nick @navasy. Read the great write-up with Natalia’s illustrations is posted on AnnaRuska or simply visit Natalia’s own blog. I love Natalia’s style, she paints in Faber Castell Pastel and Watercolor pencils. Each painting is done on white paper and can take up to 12 hours. Very impressive!

Read more…

Chess Queen™ Kosteniuk Recommends Chess King Training new DVD’s

Hello everyone!

 

After at least a year of very hard work by me and my team, I am pleased to announce 6 new DVD’s that are sure to improve the play of any player from Unrated to 1700 Elo up to the level of an accomplished/club chess player. The DVD’s are easy to watch and feature over 13 hours of chess instruction.

 

There are two series of 3 DVD’s, Chess King’s Complete Chess Course and Chess King’s Guide to Opening Ideas. You can read all descriptions here, and take advantage of the exceptional pre-order combo prices here. They start shipping next week November 5, 2012.

 

By buying any of Chess King’s products, you help me promote chess more. Thank you for your support!

Read more…

Alexandra Kosteniuk wishes you a Happy Chess Halloween!

Happy Chess Halloween to all!
I’d like to share with you my Halloween chess photos. Feel free to share them with all your chess friends. Please click LIKE if you like them.

The full link to the album here on www.chessqueen.com is here:
http://chessqueen.com/photos?album=1&gallery=196

And on www.chesspics.com the link is here:
http://www.chesspics.com/index.php?e=125
(you can vote on the photos and see which ones are liked best).

Happy Halloween!

Read more…

Twitter Verifies Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk’s @chessqueen Account

Hello everyone! I’m pleased to report that Twitter management contacted me and proposed to “verify” my account “@chessqueen” so that nobody would have any doubt that “@chessqueen” is my account (there are sometimes impersonation attempts using my name Alexandra Kosteniuk or trademark “chess queen”). So now you can be sure that my English Twitter account is @chessqueen. As far as I know, I am the first professional chess player or Grandmaster whose account has been “verified” by Twitter – and the only one at this time. If you know of anybody else whose Twitter account is verified and who is a GM (Grandmaster), please let me know! Read more…

Kosteniuk gets Gold on 1st Board in Eilat ChessEuro Cup ahead of Hou Yifan

The European Chess Club Cup just ended in Eilat, Israel. In the women’s section, the Monaco team won, and in the men’s section, the Azerbaijan team won. Besides team medals, the most sought after Gold medal was the 1st Board top result, and it was obtained by Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk, with a result of 4.5/6 and a higher performance than current women’s world chess champion Hou Yifan, whom she beat in the very first round of the event (in a surprise Caro-Kann, replay the game here). Alexandra won 11 Elo points in this event (+60 Elo points so far this year), and will be back above 2500 on the November 1 rating list, which will be right before the women’s world championship, in which the best women chess players of the planet will take part. New: more photos at the bottom of the post.

Read more…

Chess Queen™ Kosteniuk beats Hou Yifan in Eilat 2012

Today was the first round of the European Club Cup 2012 in Eilat, Israel. I am playing for the team “SHSM” which is composed exclusively of players from Moscow, with Russian Champion Gunina on the second board and Kovalevskaya on the 3rd board. We played against the top rated team Monaco, which has hired the current world champion Hou Yifan on the first, Humpy Koneru on the second, Anna Muzychuk on the third. So it was a fierce match, and especially the first board match was the most watched in the tournament, with me playing Hou Yifan, that is the 12th women’s world chess champion playing the current 13th women’s world chess champion. I decided to give her a little surprise, and for the first time in my life…

Read more…

New In Chess Features 1993 Photo of Alexandra Kosteniuk

I got in my mail recently the issue 2012#6 of the excellent Chess Magazine New In Chess, and was pleased to see on pages 10-11 an old photo of me, my sister and my Dad from 1993 (I was 9 years old). The article is called “Getting Girls on the Board”. It mentions my recent portrait and pictorial in the USA edition of Vogue Magazine.

Read more…

Kosteniuk Kid’s Chess Cup 2012 Taking Place in Svetlogorsk

Right this weekend, my 2012 Kosteniuk Chess Cup for Kids U-6, U-8 and U-10 is taking place in Svetlogorsk, Russia. More than 100 kids have been invited and are fighting for the top prizes. There is a lot of attention from the city and state authorities, many sponsors are helping to make this event a success. I made a post on my Russian Livejournal page, I will soon add here more information and photos of the winners.

Read more…

New FIDE Chess Ratings Published October 2012

The FIDE Chess ratings for October 2012 have just come out. After last year’s not so good results that saw me go from 2522 down to 2439, this year has been much better, and I’m now back to 2490 Elo, with my Rapid rating at a very respectable 2572. You can see my rating progress in the image below. This year’s events so far have been: World Rapid and Blitz Championships in Batumi (Silver and 4th place), European Championship in Gaziantep (11th in Classical and Silver in Rapid),  Russian Team Championship in Sochi (2nd on 1st board), Kazan Grand Prix (5th), Russia vs. China match in Saint Petersburg (top women result), Swiss Individual Mixed Championship (Bronze), Blitz Match vs GM Wang Hao in Biel (1.5-0.5), Istanbul Chess Olympiads (Gold Team Medal and Individual Bronze Medal). This year I still have in October the European Club Cup in Israel, then in November the World Championship in Russia, and finally the Sport Accord Mind Sports Games in December in China. A lot of chess events this year!

Read more…

Alexandra Kosteniuk’s YouTube Channel “ChessQueen” Passes a Million Views

I’m glad to report that my YouTube channel “ChessQueen” passed a million views yesterday.




Thanks for watching my videos, for giving “thumbs up” if you like them, for writing nice comments both to the videos and to my channel, I sincerely appreciate it.




I will do my best to post many new chess videos, I actually have several in the pipeline so subscribe to my YouTube Channel and you will be notified of new videos.




Below are some highlights of my channel:




Read more…

Chess Queen™ Kosteniuk comments on YouTube her aggressive chess variant against Soumya

Hello everyone!
I have commented on my YouTube channel my game from the 2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiads against Swaminathan Soumya from India.The game started as a quiet Caro-Kann, but I quickly moved it to an extremely aggressive variation that my trainer GM Alexander Riazantsev and I had prepared for a special occasion several months ago. My win allowed my team to win against India 3-1, and later on we won the Olympiads Gold medals, for the second time in a row. As of today my YouTube channel counts 998,600+ video views, so I will soon be celebrating my first million YouTube views. If you like my videos and would like me to record more of them, please click LIKE to this post and “Thumbs up” in YouTube. In this video I use the program Chess King (description, video, shop), and you can find an applet to replay the game generated by Chess King at this link.

Read more…

Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Russian Team wins the Istanbul Chess Olympiads!

Hello everyone!
I am pleased to report that we managed to repeat our success of last Olympiad in Khanty-Mansiysk and won again in Istanbul. In the final round we crushed the team of Kazakhstan 4-0 who had drawn with China 2-2 the round before. Our winning team was made of the sisters Tatiana and Nadezhda Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina, Natalija Pogonina and me, Alexandra Kosteniuk. See the full results, an interview, and our Russian team results. Besides getting Gold medals for our team, Nadezhda Kosintseva on 3rd, Natalija Pogonina on 5th and I on 4th managed to get medals on our boards.
It’s very difficult to actually win an event when everybody says you’re favorite to win, so I’m glad it worked out. There were many very strong teams out there, especially of course China and Ukraine, who ended up on the podium with us.
In the next few days I will publish here some of my games of the Olympiads, so come back soon to visit!




Read more…

Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Twitter account @chessqueen reaches 200K Followers

Today my English Twitter account @chessqueen reached 200,000 followers! I’ve been tweeting for 3 years and two months now (see my 3rd birthday post) and been enjoying it very much, I have written more than 5,000 tweets. It’s the easiest way for fans to interact with me and to find out what I’m doing at any moment in time. I have my phone with me almost all the time (except when I’m playing in a chess tournament), and it’s easy and fun for me to send a quick tweet to let everybody know what I’m doing.

My next big milestone will be soon when I hope to hit a million views on my YouTube channel “ChessQueen”. I’m at 990,000 views right now.

My destiny is to share the love of chess in the world!




Read more…

Kosteniuk working on a Chess King Tutorial DVD

I just want to share with you today the introduction to a “Tutorial DVD on how to Improve at Chess thanks to Chess King” I recorded about a month ago. The tutorial DVD will come out in about a month and will be FREE to anybody who orders Chess King in our shop. Read more…

Istanbul Chess Olympiad Rest Day Photos by Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk

The world is watching the games and the results of the 2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiads, on the official site or on Chess Blog, it’s the biggest chess event of the year. 5 rounds have been played, see the results page. There are 6 more to go, so anything is possible. On the photo to the left you can see our Russian women’s team, with coaches, having a rest moment at a coffee shop today Sunday. If you tried to recognize all the players, they are: Rublevsky, Pogonina, Kosteniuk, N. Kosintseva, Dokhoian, T. Kosintseva, Riazantsev and Naer. That’s a powerful Elo average of approx. 2582! Below you can find some more photos of today’s tourism in Istanbul.




Read more…

kosteniuk.com is Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Summary RSS Feed Page

Hello everyone! Many of you know me since 2001, when I reached the final of the women’s world chess championship in Moscow. That’s when I started my first web site, www.kosteniuk.com. Since then, I trademarked the nickname Chess Queen™ and have made it my main web site: www.chessqueen.com. I also started a general chess blog www.chessblog.com (voted by the CJA best chess blog), created a video podcast www.chesskillertips.com, have a photo site www.chesspics.com and last year created the new chess software brand Chess King at www.chess-king.com. I’m also present on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, which makes it quite confusing to know everything I’m doing at any moment in time. That’s where www.kosteniuk.com comes into play. In one page, you will find all fresh RSS feeds of all my sites and social pages. All news events are at the top of each section and are clickable. You won’t waste any time wondering what I’m doing at any moment in time, it’s all on www.kosteniuk.com!

The Russian Women’s Chess Olympiad Team is ready for Istanbul 2012

The 2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiads are starting tomorrow, we just finished our 10-day training camps in the outskirts of Moscow. I will be playing as usual with the Russian national chess team (we’re the defending champions of the last Khanty-Mansiysk 2010 Olympiads). We have a terrific line-up:




GM Tatiana Kosintseva (2530)
GM Nadezhda Kosintseva (2524)
IM Valentina Gunina (2507)
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (2489)
WGM Natalija Pogonina (2448)




We have three coaches dedicated to our women’s team: GM Sergei Rublevsky (2693), GM Alexander Riazantsev  (2712), and GM Evgeniy Najer (2664).




If you have an iPhone or iPad you can follow the results at any moment with the free 2012 Olympiad iOS app.

Read more…

Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk’s Blog CHESSBLOG.COM wins CJA Best Blog Award

I’m pleased to report that my “General” Chess Blog www.chessblog.com has just won the CJA Award for ‘Best Chess Blog’ of 2012! Here is the Chess Journalists’ of America awards announcement link. The CJA is the leading American organization of chess journalists created to promote high quality chess journalism, to provide assistance to the working journalist through articles and contacts and to recognize chess journalism at its best through an annual awards program. You can read here which were the winning entries of my blog. The main characteristic of my blog is that it is always positive and tries to show the love of chess in every post. Note that I have 3 main sites, my personal blog www.chessqueen.com, my general blog www.chessblog.com and my shop & software blog www.chess-king.com . A full summary of all my RSS feeds can be found on www.kosteniuk.com.

Peace and Sport Congratulates Champion for Peace Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk

I got a very nice letter today from the President of the not-for-profit organization Peace and Sport, for which I have been a “Champion for Peace” for a couple years now (see the official 2010 Press Release). I helped to inaugurate a chess program in a poor area of Colombia Puerto Tejada, and I have been the godmother of the program “Chess for Creativity and Leadership” to empower Palestinian women thanks to chess. I hope to be able to help promote Peace in the world more in the coming months with Peace and Sport. In the meanwhile, I am planning on going soon to the Peace and Sport 2012 International Forum in Sochi at the end of October/beginning November and I will be a speaker there.




Read more…

2012 Istanbul Chess Olympiads Women Russian Team T. & N. Kosintseva, Gunina, Kosteniuk, Pogonina

Next week I am flying to Moscow for our team’s preparation for the upcoming Istanbul 2012 Chess Olympiads. The World Chess Olympiad is an enormous chess event, up to now already at least 160 countries registered to play in Istanbul! The women’s Russian national team comprises, in order of boards: Tatiana Kosintseva, Valentina Gunina, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Natalija Pogonina. Our team should be one of the favorite to win, and we are the defending champions gold medal winners from the 2010 Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiads.




Read more…

Russian Ministry of Sports Honors Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk with highest Title

Press Release: On July 20, 2012 the Russian Minister of Sports V. Mutko signed the decree [translation] to name 12th World Chess Champion Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk “Well-Deserved Sports Master of Russia” (in Russian “Заслуженный мастер спорта”), which is the highest title awarded by the State in honor of sporting achievement. The news came out on the site of the Russian Chess Federation [translation], on the Izmailovo Center page, and congratulations are flowing on Alexandra’s Russian Twitter page @kosteniuk.

Read more…

Kosteniuk’s Slow Motion Checkmate Knockout chess video vs Wang Hao goes viral on YouTube

Less than 24 hours have passed since we posted on YouTube the 1 minute 47 seconds video of the checkmate, and over 1000 views have been registered on YouTube, and the number is rising fast [now 3 days = 3,000+ views]. The video shows the confident looking Chinese #1 Super Grandmaster Wang Hao blunder against an opponent ranked close to 300 ELO points below him, and the brutal shock he gets with the checkmating of his king. The moves are in extreme slow-motion, and you can imagine the thought process that went in the Chinese GM’s mind when he was holding on to his knight on f5. Here is the direct link to the video in YouTube. Please click “Thumbs Up” or “Like” if you appreciate the video and would like more chess videos by Chess Queen Alexandra Kosteniuk. Some more “classic” chess videos you must watch: Anand, Aronian, Carlsen, Judit Polgar,
Read more…

Chess Queen Kosteniuk featured in Vogue Magazine USA August 2012

I’m pleased to let you know that I have been featured in fashion magazine VOGUE, USA Edition, in the August 2012 issue, which hits newsstands on July 24, 2012. That issue is called the “Vogue Age Issue“, and it puts six very different women, ages 28 to 89, in the spotlight. One of them is me, Chess Queen™ Alexandra Kosteniuk and as you can imagine the main theme is what I love to do – play chess, show why it’s a cool game, and promote chess around the world! This story was in the works since February, when I was contacted by Vogue New York, then a most professional team came to Florida to work on the story, among them professional photographer Ralph Mecke, Reporter Rebecca Johnson, and sittings editor Kathryn Neale, whom I thank for a wonderful job! I hope this article will give a boost to chess in the USA, especially for kids and for girls, too!
Read more…