Alexandra Kosteniuk
April 23, 1984
Chess grandmaster
Now represents Switzerland
www.kosteniuk.com
Now Alexandra Kosteniuk is in the World Chess Top 10 on the #7 from the July ranking list of the International Chess Federation!
CAREER HIGHLIGHTS
- She started to play chess at the age of 5.
- 1994 – Alexandra won the girls under 10 division of the European Youth Chess Championship.
- 1996 – Alexandra won the girls under 12 title at both the European Youth Championships and World Youth Chess Championships. At twelve years old she also became the Russian women’s champion in rapid chess.
- At the age of 14 became the youngest women’s grandmaster in the world at that time.
- At the age of 17 Alexandra reached the final of the women’s world championship 2001 and became the runner-up narrowly losing on tie-break.
- She graduated in 2003 from the Russian State Academy of Physical Education in Moscow as a certified professional chess trainer.
- 2001-2004 – Kosteniuk became European women’s champion by winning the tournament in Dresden, Germany. As she achieved this with a performance rating above 2600, she was awarded the grandmaster title in November 2004, becoming the tenth woman to receive the highest title of the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
- 2006-2008 – she became the first Chess960 women’s world champion. She defended that title successfully in 2008. However, her greatest success so far has been to win the Women’s World Chess Championship 2008. Later in the same year, she won the women’s individual blitz event of the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing.
- In 2013, Kosteniuk became the first woman to win the men’s Swiss Chess Championship. She also won the women Swiss champion title.
- 2013-2023 – she has won many prestigious championships, such as the Women’s World Rapid Chess Championship, the FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup, the Women’s Chess Olympiads, the Women’s World Team Chess Championship, the Women’s European Team Chess Championship.
- She is a member of the “Champions for Peace” club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.
- She is the author of 3 chess books – «How I became GM at the age of 14», «Diary of a chessqueen» and «Play like Me!» and a chess workbook for kids “Chess IQ booster”.
- Known as the Chess Queen.
- Since March 2023 she represents Switzerland.
