The first days of the championship ,as it was expected,were very surprising. One of the most important events for chess enthusiasts from Yekaterinburg was the victory of Maria Kursova, a young but very talented player who beat one of the best women chess players in the world, the representative of China Zhao Xue

By the way, before the championship FIDE office impartially evaluated Masha’s abilities. This talented Ural girl was the only person nominated by the President of the International Chess Federation Kirsan Ilyumzhinov. This fact probably gave our player more confidence and strength, and moreover made her feel a grown-up independent person with a serious amount of responsibility. We hope that in the nearest future we’ll be able to talk to Maria and give our readers the interview about her achievements. For now we can say that in the next round she is meeting with Russian player Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, who is a vice women champion 2004. It goes without saying that we’ll support both of them and we wish Maria to strengthen her first but very important success.