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Chess In the Media

At chess tourney, girls call the shots (The Mercury News)

The girls who came to play at a girls-only chess tournament in Menlo Park on Saturday had no doubt they could take on any opponent. In their midst were Rozsa and Maria Ignacz, 14-year-old twins from Hungary whose chess federation ratings rank them among their age group's top players -- male or female.

But the odds are pretty good that at a tournament dominated by boys, chess matches would not have approached conclusion with the soft ``Queen, please,'' that was one girl's request.

She wasn't saying girls don't play hard-nosed chess. The tournament, which matched up 61 girls from California, Washington and Oregon, included a nerve-bending match between Sharon Tseung of Fremont and Maria Ignacz.

Computers outsmart humans in chess battle (Jakarta Post)

It was touted as a battle of "man vs machine", with some of the country's best chess players pitting their mental smarts against hi-tech computer programs.

And as expected, the computers came out on top on Monday.

The matches, also to be held on Tuesday, pitted the quartet against computerized chess programs -- Shredder8, Junior8, Fritz8 and Chessmaster9000.

GM Utut Adianto, GM Susanto Megaranto and FM Tirta Chandra Purnama were all beaten in their two games. Only FM Taufik Halay saved face with a half point in his second game against Chessmaster9000.

Cape Girl is Queen of African Chess Scene (AllAfrica.com)

The new African Junior chess champion is 18-year-old Capetonian Jenine Ellappen.

She became Cape Town's first woman international master by scoring eight points in nine games at a tournament in Lusaka, Zambia.

"Chess is an extremely challenging sport - you have to be mentally and physically conditioned to sit and think for four hours," said Ellappen, who captained her school chess team and also plays for Claremont Chess Club.

"Creativity also plays a huge role in the game and it teaches you to think laterally."

Do you know of an interesting, humorous, or unique chess story published online? E-mail us at newsletter@uschess.org.