| WCC : You have won several chess championships? Which chess championship in your lifetime has been your most memorable? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : Of course it was the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 that took place in September 2008 in Nalchik, Russia. After winning this championship I became the 12th women's world chess champion.
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| WCC : You are the current reigning women world champion. Which are other top two/three chess players in the history of chess (since its documented inception) whose games and style you admire? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : I admire all the www.worldchesschampions.com (past and present).
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| WCC : Which game(s) you would recall as your best game(s) played by you? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : The first game of my final match against Hou Yifan in Nalchik. Visit my Profile
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| WCC : You have also been participating in the Women's World Chess Championship, what special kind of preparation or techniques did you use for preparing against other GMs? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : It's the same kind of preparation which I use for all the tournament. I focus on all the problems that I have at the moment and try to focus equally on all three stages of a chess game - opening, middle game and endgame. I also pay a lot of attention to my physical shape, I run daily and do other physical activities - swim, play football etc.
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| WCC : As a young child what were your dreams of yourself as an adult? How important do you think is it to aspire to be a WCC to become one? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : I haven't really dreamt of becoming a world chess champion. I always wanted to play better and to show good results and I'm very happy that I got this title, it's a huge success for any chess career. I was taught to play chess early so I haven't really had any chance in my childhood of looking for another profession, I always knew that I'm going to be a chess professional.
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| WCC : How much time would one needs to spend incase s/he wants to target a championship? |
| Alexandra Kosteniuk : He/she needs to dedicate as much time as possible. I would say 5-6 hours daily for many years in a row. To master chess one needs to work for at least 10 years and to become a chess champion one needs even more work and years. |
| WCC : Is it possible to follow a parallel career/ study at a school or college and also play chess or would you advise serious players to focus only on chess? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : In this life you have to try to do as many things as possible and I strongly believe that you must study at school and in an university you shouldn't quit getting a regular education only because it might seem you have some talent in chess. Chess is a sport so nobody knows how it will end up and what will you eventually become, but the education is needed always and I think people shouldn't limit themselves by learning one thing only.
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| WCC : How much does family support make a difference between a successful player or otherwise? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : The support of my family is essential for me. All I've become today it's thanks to my parents and nowadays I have an enormous support from my husband, so in this sense I'm very lucky to have such a strong support. My parents did and my husband is doing now everything so I can continue playing chess and have a successful chess career. It's especially important for girls and women who usually don't have so much freedom compared to men.
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| WCC : What is the role of softwares? Did you use softwares for preparation or did you only refer to the various games databases? Are there any softwares which you personally like or would recommend to aspirants? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : Every GM nowdays use chess software and computers in order to
prepare for tournaments. I use regular chess databases like Chess Assistant and for analyzing I use Rybka I don't really use other chess computer programs.
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| WCC : How important is the role of seconds or coaches in a place where several good softwares are available to spar with you? When should one start looking forward to having a second/ coach in their chess career? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : For me the help of my coaches is very important because I have so many things to do in my life apart from chess so when a coach is next to me I can force myself to focu only on chess and to study chess very well.
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| WCC : How important are chess schools in helping aspirants prepare for chess championships ? What would be your views on the chances of formally trained chess aspirants V/s self-trained players making it to critical tournaments? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : It's rare to find players who can progress by studying chess alone, of course it has happened in the history but it's very rare. So clubs and schools should exist in order to help young players to progress and to study chess, they need to create possibillities for these players to study with good coaches and to play in tournaments.
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| WCC : How early should a person start in his/her life preparing for Chess Championships? Does the playing with family members have an affect on winning chess championships in life? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : If he/she wants to connect his/her life professionally with chess, they should start early. I would say 5-6 years old. Of course it helps very much if there is somebody else playing chess in a family, since constant practice is very important in chess.
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| WCC : For improving the game of chess, should one play as many games as possible or should
there be some restrictions to exposure? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : One should understand the difference between quantity and quality. Every game should be considered a valuable lesson and there is no need to play hundreds game without analyzing and trying to understand what went wrong and what mistakes were made. That's why it's so important to have a coach next by, since he can highlight mistakes and explain how a chess player can avoid them.
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| WCC : If someone aspires to become a world chess champion, what would be the steps you would advise them to take for grooming themselves? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : First, they need to learn how to play chess, then to find a good coach if they can't find or afford one than classical chess books for some time can be a good companion for them and start working on chess.
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Winning at Chess
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WCC : What are your views on the outcome in a given chess game. What key parameters decide a win or a loss ( of course we also have a draw) ..amongst the following,
-Sharp memory
-understanding theory / studying opponent games and weaknesses
-perseverance / keeping your cool / avoiding mistakes
-concentration / killer instinct
-just intuition / stroke of genius
-Others |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : Everything above is very important, one has to be very well prepared theoretically and at the same time to be able to keep pressure and to concentrate well. Intuition is also very important since often it's impossible to calculate all the variations and at the end you have to make your choice relying on your intuition and experience.
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| WCC : What is the best style to be adopted in chess - Aggressive or defensive? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : Both styles are possible, it depends on the player. Of course attacking is easier, but a good chess player should also know how to defend difficult positions.
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| WCC : During competitive games should one stick to playing up to ones strengths or exploiting weaknesses of opponents or just play a natural game or use an innovative approach to maximize the chances of winning? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : One should play his/her best. A player shouldn't think about how an opponent will play but rather how he/she will play.
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| WCC : Though white and black do come up as alternate, would you say that starting with white gives the player an advantage and it is then more for the white player to maintain his advantage throughout the game? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : Of course White gets a small plus because of the right to start the game first. But this initiative gives more responsibilty to a player who plays White since "one who has the initiative has to attack in order not to lose this initiative", another words, if a player will just sit and wait this initiativ will get to Black but on the other hand if a player decides to attack he/she also weakneses his/her position.
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About Self
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| WCC : You are a rare combination of a beauty and brains and logically have a great fan following? What gives you a bigger high - winning in chess or opportunities in the glamour world? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : The first thing for me is how I play chess. If I play well and win tournaments that gives a boost to my popularity and helps to promote chess in the world
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| WCC : For most chess is a hobby? What are your hobbies? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : For most chess is a hobby because it's very difficult to be a chess professional and to earn money playing chess. But for the world champion chess is of course a profession.
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| WCC : You did a movie? Share some of your great moments? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : I was invited by the famous Russian movie director Stanislav Govorukhin to take part in one of his movies. That was a very interesting experience for me and I will be happy to consider taking part in more movies.
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| WCC : You were blessed with a child in April 2007? How did you juggle with the constant demands of the bundle of joy, other family and life commitments and preparing for winning the women's world chess championship in 2008? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : It's a very difficult task but as I told earlier I'm blessed not only with a wonderful daugther but also with a very understanding and loving husband, and the support of these two gives me strength to train and play more.
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| WCC : You have written several books on chess. Which is your favorite book till date? Which is the latest you are working on? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : My new book
"Diary of a Chess Queen" just came out in English, I spent 6 months of the year 2009 working on this book and it is of course a very special book for me. In this book I’m telling a story from my first moves on the chess board until I became the world champion.
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Future of Chess
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WCC : Which type of chess would you rate as the best?
-Rapid
-With computer aid
-Blind fold
-No time limit
-Standard format
-Some combinations of the above |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : My favorite is blitz. I like playing blitz chess I'm sure you already saw it on my youtube.com/chessqueen channel
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| WCC : How do you see the future of chess unfold in the coming 10-20 years? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : We will see many more rapid and blitz tournaments and we will also see more countries accepting chess in their school programs. Hopefully chess can become a part of the Olympic Movement or to get to the TV.
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| WCC : You have been one of the few women to have also formally been rated as a GM(Men's category)? Do you foresee Women winning the World Chess Champion position in the coming few years? Is there something for women chess aspirants that you would have as a parting advise? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk :I believe that it can happen in the future, but for that we will need to find a very stong and talented young chess player who will be ready to dedicate most of her life to chess and trainings and she will be able to afford those trainings and will be stable enough mentally and physically to be able to compete with the top gm's.
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| WCC : Many chess championship aspirants and your fans would like to be abreast about your various aspects of life and chess. What would be the various ways in which they can be connected with you ? |
Alexandra Kosteniuk : I'm very active on-line. I have a chessblog - www.chessblog.com dedicated to promote women's chess where I talk about women's chess in general as well as on my current activities, I'm also writing to the social chains such as Facebook and Twitter so every fan can find me there using my nickname chessqueen. I also have a special youtube channel, I'm also recording an audio podcast that can be found in iTunes or at kosteniuk.com/podcast, as well as I have my official web-site www.kosteniuk.com and several other web-sites which I run. alexandra@kosteniuk.com , http://chessqueen.com/
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