Alexandra Kosteniuk just published the 32nd episode of her popular chess audio podcast “Chess is Cool”. It’s a 16 minute MP3 file in which she talks about how she won at the recent Women’s World Championship in Nalchik. Alexandra became the 12th women world champion in history. You can listen to it by clicking here or by susbcribing for free on iTunes.

The Underwire from Wired.com is running a contest to find the sexiest geek of the year 2008, and women’s chess world champion Alexandra has been nominated as one of the contestants. Voting is taking place right now. Would it not be cool if Alexandra turned out as one on the top on the list? That would show how cool chess is. We like to define a geek as someone who has chosen concentration rather than conformity, one who passionately pursues skill (especially technical skill) and imagination, not mainstream social acceptance. Or a person with a devotion to something in a way that places him or her outside the mainsteam. Chess may be somewhat geeky, but nevertheless we think it’s the coolest game of all. Do you agree? You can read another article about this on Examiner.com and another one here
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FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhnov offered women’s world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk a national costume of the Republic of Kalmykia, and we have an exclusive web photo album for you to enjoy.



As a holiday gift to you, Alexandra will send free autographed world champion postcards to anybody who requests one by email to Alexandra. Don’t forget to write your postal mailing address as it will be a real postcard not an email postcard. Happy Holidays!

Alexandra was the guest of honor in Elista, Kalmykia, Russia, just before the start of the Elista 2008 Grand Prix event. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov offered to Alexandra a beautiful horse as a gift for winning the 2008 Women’s World Chess Championship. Alexandra also gave two simuls and a chess class to students. She was welcomed to the school of Iki-Chonos where high officials accepted her in the ranks of the “Big Wolves”. With her sister Oxana she was invited to the city’s Buddist temple. Pufichek’s 477 photos are ready for you to enjoy.

Alexandra was the guest of honor at the 1st Korea Open Chess Championship, in Seoul, South Korea. You see her pictured here with the Chairman of the Korea Chess Federation Hyun In-Suk. Alexandra gave a 40-board simul on the last day of the event, you can see a 209-photo album by Pufichek by clicking here.

On the 29th and 30th of November took place the 2nd Cup Alexandra Kosteniuk in Moscow, for kids U-6 and U-8, organized by Alexandra’s Moscow chess school, Azbukachess. It took place in the beautiful Central Moscow Chess Club, and attracted 84 participants. You can watch photos of the event by clicking here.

Today Alexandra’s team won their first match 4-0 against Azerbaijan. Alexandra won against Zeinab Mamedjarova in only 23 moves: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Nxe4 6. d4 b5 7. Bb3 d5 8. dxe5 Be6 9. Be3 Be7 10. Nbd2 O-O 11. c3 Qd7 12. h3 Rad8 13. Bc2 f5 14. exf6 Nxf6 15. a4 Bxh3 16. gxh3 Qxh3 17. Ng5 Qh4 18. Bf5! Bd6 19. Ndf3 Qh5 20. Kg2 h6 21. Rh1 Qe8 22. Ne6 Ne7 23. Nxg7!! Black resigned because of 23…Qc6 24. Be6+ Kxg7 25. Bxh6+ Kg6 26. Qc1 Ne4 27. Bxf8 Kf6 28. Qh6+ Ng6 29. Qg7+ Kxe6 30. Nd4 mate! You can copy and paste the moves in this pgn player.

Russia is presenting the strongest teams, in both women and men competitions, at the 2008 Dresden Olympiads. The women’s team is composed of World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, Tatiana Kosintseva, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Ekaterina Korbut and Natalia Pogonina (average ELO 2495). The men’s team is composed of Grandmasters Vladimir Kramnik, Peter Svidler, Alexander Grischuk, Alexander Morozevich and Dmitry Jakovenko (average ELO 2756). Follow the event on the organizer’s site, watch the games live, and check the results.

BREAKING NEWS: GOLD AGAIN AT THE MIND SPORTS GAMES! Alexandra Kosteniuk and her teammates Natalia Pogonina, Valentina Gunina, and Irina Vasilevich won the Women’s team Blitz event, beating in the final matches the number 1 seeded China (Hou Yifan (vice-champion of the world), Zhao Xue, Xu Yuhua (ex-world champion), Huang Quian and Ruan Lufei 2.5 to 1.5 and 3 to 1. Alexandra on the first board won both her games against Hou Yifan, congratulations! NEW! Watch all 270 photos from Beijing here!

Update: Alexandra won today the vote for the top sports person of the month on the leading Russian Sports Site Sportbox. This is a first for chess since Alexandra was in competition with very popular sports people such as tennis players Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva, and swimmers Oxana Savchenko and Larisa Ilchenko. Thanks to all of you who voted, your support is really appreciated. The whole final stages of the vote against Olympic Gold medalist Ilchenko was live on national Russian TV and so chess got extreme coverage. For millions of people, chess was really cool today.

Alexandra Kosteniuk continues to be in superb form and won a first Gold medal for herself and for her country in the blitz individual competition of the Mind Sports Games in Beijing, China. Top world players participated in this most important blitz event of the year, including vice-champion of the world Hou Yifan. After qualifying yesterday for the semi-finals, Alexandra beat Zhao Xue 2-0

in the semi-finals while Stefanova beat Hou 2-1. In the Finals, Alexandra Kosteniuk beat Antonaeta Stefanova 2-1 to win the Gold medal! Results: Gold: Kosteniuk Silver: Stefanova Bronze: Hou. You can watch all of Alexandra’s blitz games by clicking here. Right now and for the next couple of days (schedule) Alexandra is playing the rapid individual competition and you can watch her games live by clicking here. Read an article from China View.

And another one from chess.com.

Women’s World Chess Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is leading her team at the 1st World Sports Mind Games in Beijing, China. Her team-mates are Baira Kovanova, Nataliya Pogonina, and Irina Vasilevich. Alexandra hopes that these Mind Sport Games will help in the movement to put chess in the Olympic Movement. You can follow the event on its official Mind Sports Games Page.

BREAKING NEWS: Alexandra finished second of the Blitz Individual Preliminaries and qualifies to tomorrow’s semi-finals, together with Hou Yifan, Antonatea Stefanova and Zhao Xue.

The interest from the media has been very strong for the women world chess championship won by Alexandra Kosteniuk, here are some media links: TV (English):

Spotlight TV. (Russian): Vesti 15, Vesti 16, Vesti 17, Vesti 18, Dobroe Utro, NTV. Radio (Russian): Ekho Moscow. Photos: All Players, Tourism 1, 2, 3, Finals, Closing. We are collecting the newspaper and magazine clippings and will post them soon.

Since she became the 12th Women World Champion in the history of chess last week, Alexandra Kosteniuk has been interviewed by dozens of TV channels. In particular, you can watch an interview in English on Russia TV either on chessmovies.com in Quicktime or on tubechess.com in Flash. We will continue to post movies to both those sites.

Click here to read Jerry Hanken’s interview of Alexandra Kosteniuk for Chess Life Online. Dozens of other web articles have come out, for example in the New York Times [If need registration click HERE], and in the Star.

In this photo you can see FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov handing over to recently crowned women world chess champion Alexandra Kosteniuk two telegrams with personal messages of congratulations from Russian president Dmitry Medvedev and from Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

It was an incredibly beautiful evening in Nalchik, where the Closing Ceremony of the Women’s World Chess Championship took place. On the photo to the left, you see freshly decorated Alexandra with her crown made of 46 diamonds and 3 blue sapphires, holding her gold world champion medal, a laurel wreath around her shoulders. NEW: Watch the 155-photo PHOTOALBUM!

Alexandra today in the 4th match game held on to a draw and so won the final match against Hou Yifan by 2.5 – 1.5, earning her a deserved World Champion Title. Alexandra is now the 12th Woman Chess Champion of the History of Chess. She is also the only person to hold simultaneously the titles of World Champion in Classical Chess and in Chess960. Thanks to all of you for your wonderful support during the tournament and now, Alexandra is thrilled to be getting thousands of emails, guestbook entries, Facebook messages, youTube view, thanks!! The prize ceremony will be tomorrow and we can already promise you awesome photos! You can view or download the full 48-page Bulletin with all Final games very well commented by clicking here (1.3 MB).

Alexandra won her first game of the Final of the Women World Championship against China’s Hou Yifang, showing a good command of the Ruy Lopez with the black pieces. Have a look (copy and paste moves into the pgn player then press “apply”): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.Re1 b5 7.Bb3 0–0 8.a3 d6 9.c3 Bg4 10.d3 Na5 11.Bc2 c5 12.h3 Bd7 13.d4 Qc7 14.d5 c4 15.Nbd2 Nb7 16.Nf1 Nc5 17.g4 h5 18.N3h2 hxg4 19.hxg4 Qc8 20.f3 Nh7 21.Ng3 Bg5 22.Nf5 Qd8 23.Kg2 g6 24.Ng3 Kg7 25.Rh1 Rh8 26.Nhf1 Qf6 27.Be3 Bxe3 28.Nxe3 Ng5 29.Qe2 Rag8 30.Raf1 Qf4 31.Rxh8 Rxh8 32.Rh1 Rxh1 33.Nxh1 Nd3 34.Bxd3 cxd3 35.Qf2 d2 36.Ng3 Nxf3 37.Qxf3 Bxg4 38.Qf2 d1Q 39.Nxd1 Bxd1 40.Qe1 Bf3+ 41.Kg1 f5 42.exf5 gxf5 43.Qf2 Kg6 44.b3 e4 45.c4 bxc4 46.bxc4 Qg5 47.c5 f4 48.cxd6 fxg3 Black wins 0–1. UPDATE 16/9: The second and third games were drawn. One more game to go.

Tomorrow Sunday will take place the first game of the final of the Women’s World Chess Championship between Grandmasters Alexandra Kosteniuk playing under the Russian flag and Hou Yifan playing for China. They will play 4 games in total for the title of Women World Champion. There is a site www.chesspolls.com that collects forecasts on this match, so if you have an opinion on the possible winner, you can go there and cast your vote. You can view or download the full 28-page Bulletin with all semi-final games very well commented by clicking here (1.3 MB). Links: Photos, Live Games, Videos.

The last 6 months of intense training are paying out for Alexandra, who qualified today for the Final of the World Championship by drawing Pia Cramling in the second game of their mini-match, bringing her score to 1.5-0.5. Alexandra is the only player left in the championship not to have lost a single game up to now. Alexandra’s opponent in the Final will be decided in the tie-breaks tomorrow, it will be either China’s Hou or India’s Koneru. It will be Alexandra’s second try at the title, remember that in 2001 Alexandra went all the way to the Final but lost narrowly to China’s Zhu Chen after tie-breaks. Now Alexandra has 7 years more experience and many new titles, European Champion 2004, GM (men) 2004, Russian Champion 2005, Chess960 World Champion 2006 & 2008, European Team Champion 2007.

It was pure domination today, before 30 moves were played Cramling playing Black could hardly find any piece to move. Have a look (copy and paste moves into the pgn player then press "apply"): 1. e4 e6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 Nc6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. e5 Ne4 6. Bd3 Bb4 7. Bd2 Nxd2 8.
Qxd2 f6 9. a3 Bxc3 10. Qxc3 fxe5 11. dxe5 Qe7 12. h4 Bd7 13. b4 a6 14. h5 O-O-O
15. Qd2 Kb8 16. c3 Rdf8 17. Qe3 Na7 18. a4 c5 19. bxc5 Rc8 20. Rb1 Qxc5 21.
Qxc5 Rxc5 22. Bxa6 Rc7 23. Kd2 Bxa4 24. Rb4 Bd7 25. Rhb1 Bc8 26. Nd4 Re8 27. f4
Ree7 28. Rb6 h6 29. g3 Re8 30. Rd6 Ree7 31. Bf1 Bd7 32. Bh3 Nc8 33. Bxe6 Nxd6
34. exd6 Bxe6 35. dxe7 Bd7 36. Nf5 1-0 Tomorrow the second game of this semi-final will be played (watch live at 3 PM local time). In the other semi-final, Hou beat Koneru with the white pieces. The tension is at a maximum since the ticket to the World Chess Championship Final is at stake.

Both Alexandra Kosteniuk and Pia Cramling have been in superb form and have reached the World Semi-finals. They are only 1 step from the World Finals. Who will win? Cramling is very experienced but Alexandra is very dangerous. They will play 2 games, one on Wednesday and one on Thursday. In the other semi, Humpy Koneru will play Hou Yifan. By the way you can watch the games live here both days at 3 PM Nalchik Time (1 PM Paris time, 7AM New York time).
New, Pufichek updated his “Look at me!” gallery of beautiful women chess masters. Update: Kosteniuk won the first game.

Alexandra Kosteniuk beat Anna Ushenina today in the second game of their quarter finals match. Alexandra qualifies for the semi-finals. She will play Pia Cramling. In the other semi-final Humpy Koneru will play Hou Yifan. Have a look at Alexandra’s game: Ushenina – Kosteniuk: 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. Qc2 d5 5. cxd5 exd5 6. Bg5 c5 7. dxc5 h6 8. Bh4 g5 9. Bg3 Ne4 10. e3 Qa5 11. Be5 O-O 12. Bd3 Nc6 13. Bxe4 Nxe5 14. Bh7+ Kg7 15. Bd3 b6 16. cxb6 d4 17. exd4 Nxd3+ 18. Qxd3 Re8+ 19. Kd1 Bf5 20. Qd2 Bxc3 21. Qxc3 Qxb6 22. Ne2 Rac8 23. Qa3 Rc2 24. Re1 Rd8 25. Qe3 Qxb2 26. Rc1 Re8 0-1. You can copy and paste the moves into this pgn player. New: Download the Bulletin with this great game commented by GM Shipov.

Another free day for Alexandra during the World Chess Championship in Nalchik. She had a chance to visit the famous Blue Lake, whose color is absolutely amazing. It’s also one of the deepest lakes in Europe and divers have gone as far down as 180 meters below surface. You can see Pufichek’s photos by clicking here.

Alexandra qualified for the 1/4 finals of the Nalchik Women World Championships by beating Tatiana Kosintseva (ELO 2511) 1.5 – 0.5. She will be opposed to Anna Ushenina (ELO 2476) from the Ukraine next round. Make sure to visit Pufichek’s photo album of most of the players from the Women World Chess Championship in Nalchik. We have uploaded for you the two games Alexandra played against Tatiana Kosintseva, commented by GM Belov in a PDF, and to be downloaded in pgn format. By the way if you want to see the games in your browser, we recommend you simply copy and paste the pgn text into this universal pgn player.

Pufichek from our partner site Chesspics created a photo album of most of the players from the Women World Chess Championship in Nalchik, you don’t want to miss it. As usual ou can vote for the players you like best (5 stars = best, 1 star = worst). We have obtained special "Look at me!" gallery for you, enjoy! You can also watch Alexandra’s free educational videos (youTube channel, chess killer tips, flash videos, quicktime videos).

Today Alexandra had a free day and she was invited to explore the very beautiful countryside of Kabardino-Balkaria. About 2 hours away from the capital Nalchik she
visited the Chegemskie waterfalls. The local people were very hospitable and made meat shashliks and other delicious local dishes (like the traditional bread with cheese and potatoes called khychin). You can see a photo album of Alexandra’s day out by clicking here.

Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk won her first two games in Nalchik against Pourkashiyan from Iran. You can read GM Belov’s analysis of her first game from the bulletin. Alexandra is qualified for the third round which will start on Thursday. Thanks to all of Alexandra’s fans who sent her emails of support for this important competition.

Alexandra has been training very hard and is looking forward to going in 6 days to Nalchik to participate in the World Women’s Chess Championship. The championship will start on August 28, and we will let you know regularly how Alexandra is doing. The official championship site is here. It will be extremely hard fought, as the top world elite will play, for example Xu Yuhua, Humpy Koneru, Yifan Hou, Antoaneta Stefanova, Pia Cramling, Marie Sebag, Zhao Xue, Kosintseva T., Viktoria Cmilyte, Anna Muzychuk, Lufei Ruan, Natalia Zhukova, etc. Top players wait for this event every 2 years, so let’s wish that good games are played and may the best player win!

The very respected Association Chess Journalists of America has awarded 3 Top awards to Alexandra for her work in promoting chess: 1) Best Chess Blog Video or Podcast for her free Chess Killer Tips Podcast 2) Best Analysis for her Huss-Kosteniuk game (download PDF or download pgn) and 3) Best Chess Art for her Comic Series Chess is Cool, with text by Alexandra Kosteniuk and Illustrations by René Duret. If you have a web site or cover chess in the press, we recommend you join the CJA to increase excellence in chess press coverage in the world.

Alexandra has commented in detail her two recent wins with the Black pieces in Rapid chess against Grandmasters Tregubov (ELO 2658) and Hracek (ELO 2625). You can watch them either on YouTube (Tregubov, Hracek), or Tubechess (Tregubov, Hracek), or Chessmovies (Tregubov, Hracek). Each video is less than 10 minutes and is very educational. We hope you have also watched Alexandra’s report on her Mainz Chess960 World Championship Win YouTube (10 minute version), Tubechess (24 min.), Chessmovies (24 min).

Breaking news: Alexandra Kosteniuk is World Champion! Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk beat 2008 European Champion Kateryna Lahno 2.5-1.5 to retain her Women’s World Chess960 Champion title. Overall Alexandra scored a spectacular 8/10 in this event. Have a look at Pufichek’s 143 photos from the Mainz World Championship, and another superb 226 photo gallery of Mainz Grandmasters, vote for the ones you like best. NEW! Watch Alexandra’s VIDEO REPORT of Mainz, on YouTube (10 minute version), or on Tubechess or Chessmovies (24 minute version).

Alexandra brilliantly qualified for the Chess960 World Championship Final that will take place tomorrow. She beat both Olympic champions Natalia Zhukova and Kateryna Lahno 2-0 and Viktorija Cmilyte 1.5-0.5, for an unforgiving total of 5.5/6. Her challenger will be current European Champion 2008 Kateryna Lahno in a 4-game match for the World Champion title.

Alexandra started well the first day of the Chess960 qualifyers, with 2.5 out of 3, beating both Kateryna Lahno and Natalia Zhukova and drawing Viktorija Cmilyte. Tomorrow is the second day of the qualifyers and the top two qualify for the World Championship final.

Chess Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Vishy Anand opened the Mainz 2008 Chess Festival with a friendly game, in front of chief organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt, main sponsor Wolfgang Grenke, Mainz Mayor Jens Beutel. Alexandra will defend her Chess960 World Title against challengers Natalia Zhukova and Kateryna Lahno of the Ukraine, and Viktorija Cmilyte from Lithunania. More info can be found on the organizer’s site.

We are pleased to report that the leading video sharing site in the world YouTube has invited Grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk to create a “Guru channel” and present her videos for free to the world. YouTube has offered Alexandra the channel name “ChessQueen” so you will be able to reach it by simply clicking or typing youtube.com/chessqueen in your browser. We hope that this new medium will bring many more people to the wonderful world of chess. Alexandra has recently posted 6 videos to the channel but has many more (including exclusive ones) in the pipeline. Please go to her channel and subscribe to it, you will then automatically be notified of new free videos. Also, feel free to rate and put your comments about the videos so Alexandra has some feedback and can give you the types of videos you like best. Enjoy!

The very successful 12th International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg just ended, and Alexandra was a VIP guest to politicians and business leaders alike. You can see her on the photo playing the Krasnoyarsk Region Governor Khloponin. Alexandra also met very important politicians like Premier Alexander Zhukov and she played over 20 speed games with President Medvedev’s Aide Arkady Dvorkovich in between VIP simuls. Pufichek created a photo album for you, you can have a look at it by clicking here.

Alexandra commented another one of her IMSA (International Mind Games Association) blitz games, this time against GM Yuri Balashov, at the IMSA Cup in Perm 2 weeks ago. The video is just under 10 minutes, and weighs about 40 MB. The opening was a Sicilian Defense and it was a tough fight, listen to Alexandra explain her thoughts all along the game. You can watch it either in Flash format or in Quicktime.

Alexandra’s first blitz video of the IMSA Cup is out, with a commented win against IM Vladislav Krapivin at the IMSA Cup in Perm. The video is 5 minutes long, and weighs about 20 MB. You can watch it either in Flash format or in Quicktime. More blitz videos to come out soon.

We have some news for you about Alexandra’s younger sister, Oxana. She’s now 20 years old and in 4th year of her studies at the University of Moscow, department of Journalism, specialty TV. She was sent for practice to the Baku Chess Grand Prix, and she is turning out quite good reports daily, aired nationally on Russian TV. If you understand some Russian, you will enjoy watching her reports. Here are the links: Round 7, Round 8, Round 9, Free Day, (this list will be updated or you can go directly to www.tubechess.com for all reports).

Chess is now one step closer to the great Olympic family. Alexandra just came back from Perm (Russia), where the first IMSA Cup took place, a preview of the grandiose World Mind Sport Games which will take place in Beijing, China, this October, right after the Olympic Games. The International Mind Sports Association unites Chess, Draughts, Bridge and Go and has as declared goal the inclusion of mind sports in the Olympic movement. The partnership of several mind sports raises chances of success significantly and is officially approved by the European Olympic Committe (Read this). Grandmasters Alexandra Kosteniuk and Anatoly Karpov were the two stars of the event. NEW! watch our exclusive photo album! Come back soon for video of the IMSA Cup.

Alexandra’s DVD of her lecture on the Ruy Lopez is finally ready and available for $14 + s&h $6 = $20. If you’d like to support Alexandra by buying her DVD, please click here.

We are happy to present to you Alexandra’s complete lecture on the Ruy Lopez Opening, which she gave at the Marshall Chess Club on April 12, 2008. The lecture is in video format, completely free for you to watch. The files are large, so please be patient while they load in your browser.
A) Intro (3 min., approx. 9 MB, Quicktime, or Flash)
B) Part 1 (26 min, approx. 65 MB, Quicktime, or Flash)
C) Part 2 (27 min., approx. 70 MB, Quicktime, or Flash)
D) Part 3 (10 min., approx. 28 MB, Quicktime, or Flash)
E) Part 4 (15 min., approx. 38 MB, Quicktime, or Flash)
Due to the high cost of providing the bandwidth for this lecture, the links may be temporary. If you’d like to order a DVD of the lecture in full quality for $20, please contact Alexandra.

Alexandra gave a simul to 29 sharp minds at New York’s fine Columbia University. Under a cool and windy day, the games were hard fought and Alexandra ended the day with 22 wins, 5 draws, counting two losses to Daniel Park and Conrad Ho, congratulations to all! Read Chris Morris-Lent’s Post on the University Blog by clicking here, and an article just came out in the Columbia Spectator, read it here. Exclusive: have a look at our photo album by clicking here and make sure to watch our 3-minute video review on either Chessmovies (quicktime) or on Tubechess (Flash).

Alexandra would like to thank Dr. Frank Brady, President of the Marshal Chess Club, for his warm welcome in New York, this last weekend. Alexandra played in the Friday night Blitz tournament and gave a lecture on the Ruy Lopez on Saturday night. Alexandra will soon comment for you a near-perfect game she played against the winner of the tournament GM Paragua and we will also have video material from the lecture.

Alexandra visited today Ben Silva’s elective chess class at the Miami Beach Senior High and gave a chess lecture based on the game she won against Huss. She talked about the ideas behind the Queen’s Indian Defense, and showed several spectacular games on that theme. You can see some photos of the events on this chesspics album. You can also download for free the PGN file with all detailed analysis or the complete 4-page PDF of the lecture content. More information, photos and even a video can be found on the official Miami-Dade Scholastic Chess Blog.

Alexandra has posted new podcast episodes, which are free for you to download/listen/watch: 1) Audio podcast Chess is Cool Episode 29 2) Video Podcast Chess Killer Tips (Episode 52 Flash, Quicktime, Episode 53 Flash, Quicktime) 3) Commented game Aronian – Van Wely: Flash, Quicktime. Enjoy!

Next month Alexandra will make a visit to New York, invited by the one of the Nation’s top schools, Columbia University. She
will give a Simul to the members of the Columbia Chess Club in the afternoon of Sunday April 13. Last year Columbia invited Hikaru Nakamura, see the report of that event. Two days before that, on April 11 at 7:30 PM Alexandra will play a Rapid in the home of the brilliant ex-world champion Bobby Fischer, the Marshall Chess Club, at 23 West 10th Street. Come and play the Friday Rapid or watch Alexandra play, attendance is open to all.

Alexandra participated yesterday in the Miami Beach Ocean Drive 5K Run, and won her 20-24 age category with the excellent time of 21 minutes and 31 seconds for the 5 kilometers (approx. 3.1 miles, that’s a pace under 7 minutes per mile). She came in 7th woman overall, in a field of over 1,000 runners. You can see all exact results of the race by visiting this site, then by selecting menu items: Results – Calendar View – March 2008 – Ocean Drive Run – Results.