16 May 2009
There are many interesting chess women’s events this week in France. Many creative people live in France and often chess and new ideas give beautiful combinations.
I just came back from a trip to the wonderful island of Corsica. I was invited there by the main organizer Leo Battesti for the “Match des Championnes ” between me (the world champion) and the champion of France – Sophie Milliet. This match took place on the 15 of May and hundreds of kids had a chance to watch this match and to play their final school tournament.
Leo told me that he thinks that for promoting chess we should mainly focus on schools. We should start teaching kids to play chess in schools and through this the popularity of chess will rise automatically.
This match was a very interesting experience for me. Sophie and I had to play 2 games of 15 min + 3 sec/move in front of the very excited kids. We played on the scene, as true actors and what was interesting that the commentary to our games were live and with no headphones, so everybody, including the players, could hear these audio commentaries. Of course there were basic commentaries for the kids.
It turned out that I was much better prepared for the match. I won quite easily with White in the first game and in the second game I was able to checkmate my opponent in 18 moves with Black (including 10 which were made with my Queen.
Tomorrow, May 17, my best firend Almira Skripchenko and I will be giving a simltaneous exhibiton in the Pyramides, which is close to Paris. You can watch a very nice slideshow with the photos of me and Almira here.
Posted by Alexandra Kosteniuk
Women’s World Champion
