Women, Chess960, and Video

My two previous posts -- Pictures of a Fischer Random Precursor and Chess960 Fever in Little Sweden -- were about Susan Polgar, the former Women's World Champion, and her experiences with chess960. The eldest of the three Polgar sisters is not the only Women's World Champion to have experimented with Fischer's idea. Current Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk played chess960 at Mainz 2008 in an elite event with three other top women players.

Kosteniuk leads in FiNet World Women Chess960 Rapid (4:41) • 'The first half of the 2. FiNet Chess960 Rapid World Championship produced entertaining though not perfect chess.'

According to the clip's additional info, the games were played at a time control of 20 minutes plus 5 seconds increment per move. Here are links to both parts of the video:

• Day 1: Kosteniuk leads in FiNet World Women Chess960 Rapid (shown above)
  
• Day 2: Kosteniuk and Lahno to meet in FiNet Chess960 Final

For more about the Mainz 2008 event, see Chess960 @ Chess Classic Mainz.