Gender and Chess - The Ever-Changing, Never-Ending Question...

The Ladies Versus the Veterans Match 1998

from the "Chessplayer" website, http://www.chessplayer.com/Ladieseven.htm
9/21/98 - reporting on the results of the match

In the amazing display of "Girl Power" Ladies Team defeated Veterans in the last round to even the match score! The tournament/match took place in French town Roquebrune and was sponsored Joop van Osteroom, well-known Dutch chess patron, and Max Euwe Assosiation. Max Euwe assosiation conducts numerous chess events in Europe.

Ladies won round twelve with 4,5 : 1,5, slashing 3 point distance that was between two teams before going into the last round. Veterans lost three games and drew three. Ioseliani, Cramling and Arakhamia won their games against Hort, Smyslov and Taimanov respectively. Ladies' Team had three players from Georgia ( Ioseliani, Chiburdanidze and Arakhamia) a tiny republic in Caucas mountains, in the south of the former Soviet Union. While Georgian women lost the Women's Chess Crown to Zsuzsa Polgar, their presence in women's chess remains very significant.

Victor Kortchnoi, who represents Switzerland, won the tournament with a convincing 9 out 12 score, winning six games, without a single loss. Kortchnoi shows amazing form and no signs of slowing down at 68! He won several tournaments this year, including a strong GM tournament in Saraevo, Bosnia.

The second and third place was shared by former World Champions, Maya Chiburdanidze and Boris Spassky. They scored 7,5 points. Boris Spassky was very careful, drawing many games in the area of thirty moves or so, but Maya fought real hard throughout the event and contributed a great deal to success of her team. Spassky could have won his final game, having secod place all to himself, but blundered in complications and drew.

Vlastimil Hort lost his final game and finished in a tie for 4th and 5^th with Zhu Chen. Sweden's Pia Cramling finished the tournament with two wins, greatly improving her final standing and scoring 6,5 points, she took 6th. Nana Ioseliani and Xie Jun were 7-8th with 5,5 points, or as chessplayers say, 50%. Lajosh Portisch and Vassily Smyslov scored five points, splitting 9th and 10th. Ketino Arakhamia had 4 points, 11^th place and Mark Taimanov finished last with 2,5.

All games in the last round were hard-fought, with many going over 50 moves.

Ladies, who were much lower rated than Veterans, were expected to lose the with approximately 31:41 score, and most of them are going to gain rating points as a result of this tournament. Veteran’s team performance was seriously undermined by a poor form of Mark Taimanov. Ketino Arakhamia played many good games, but her result was spoiled by her habitual time-pressure, where she made several blunders in winning positions. Zhu Chen played a very good tournament, scoring a men's GM-norm.