The much awaited Women’s World Championship begins play tomorrow.  The 64-player knockout tournament has added value in that Hou Yifan is not particpating, and therefore the winner (in principle) will be the logical challenger to dispute a world title match against the chinese superstar.

Though the official opening ceremony and drawing of colours begins in a few hours, Vladimir Putin has already sent his greetings to all of the participants

“Our country is justifiably proud of its chess traditions and has great experience in organising prestigious competitions of this kind. We will of course do everything possible to make sure that this championship is of the very highest level.

Sochi extends a hospitable welcome today to the world’s best women chess players, who will engage in intense and strong competition to demonstrate their skill, determination and creative ability and show in practice that they have everything it takes to fight for the chess world’s crown.”

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CANADIAN REPRESENTATIVE

Canada is fortunate to have youngster Yuan Yuanling (born 1994) represent its colours. The super-busy Yale undergraduate has recently come back to active chess after a 2 and a half year absence between January 2011 and the summer of 2013. She scored an excellent 7.5 points at the Tromso Olympiad in 2014, and has played in several tournaments already this year as a warm up for Sochi. Yuan’s first round opponent in the knockout event is the Ukrainian Mariya Muzychuk, one of the top females in the world, and sister of world number three–Ana Muzychuk. I am certain that all of my readers wish her the best of success in Sochi!

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 MEANWHLE, BACK IN CANADA…

…WOMEN’S CHESS IS BEING BURIED!

From FIDE information about Canadian female players activity in 2015. (Note: this information does not include Cappelle la Grande or Reykjavik–where 14 year old Qiyu Zhou is playing)

First notice the ‘G’ column.  This column lists how many FIDE rated games each player on the list has recently played, and is an important indicator of whether the said player is playing or not. With the exception of Yuanling (and Qiyu), NOBODY is playing any organized rated chess! More than just a few on this list haven’t play any chess in the past 5-years. Some haven’t played in more than ten years…

Second, notice the last column. This column lists the birth-year of the players. With the exception of Qiyu, not a single junior is on the list. Moreover, quite a few of the top players are not much younger than myself!  WHERE HAVE ALL THE YOUNGSTERS GONE?

CFC PREZ VLADIMIR DRKULEC: WTF ARE YOU DOING TO CANADIAN CHESS??

Last year the CFC Prez refused to organize the female championship of Canada (Yuan Yuanling was appointed Canada’s representative in Sochi).  This year the CFC president contributed significantly to a $1,000 grant (the CMA also contributed part) to a young 16-year old boy to play in Cappelle and Reykjavik.  To 14-year old school girl Qiyu Zhou (who won the WORLD U-14 championship last year), Drkulec gave $0.00 to help her play in the exact same two tournaments, despite Qiyu’s family struggling to find sponsorship for Qiyu.  

Qiyu in Reykjavik, no thanks to the CFC.  When Qiyu won the World U-14 title last year, the Mayor of Ottawa took the time to write Qiyu to personally congratulate her!  The President of the CFC never wrote or telephoned…and clearly does not want the CFC to support her in anyway!

Drkulec later justified his decison about the $1,000 , when confronted by outrage from adult members of the CFC, by arrogantly explaining that he can do whatever he wants…!!!