Tatiana Kosintseva
Encyclopedia
Tatiana Anatolyevna Kosintseva (born April 11, 1986 in Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk
Arkhangelsk , formerly known as Archangel in English, is a city and the administrative center of Arkhangelsk Oblast, Russia. It lies on both banks of the Northern Dvina River near its exit into the White Sea in the north of European Russia. The city spreads for over along the banks of the river...

) is a Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...

n chess
Chess
Chess is a two-player board game played on a chessboard, a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. It is one of the world's most popular games, played by millions of people worldwide at home, in clubs, online, by correspondence, and in tournaments.Each player...

 player who has achieved the FIDE title of Grandmaster (October 2009). As of November 2011 her FIDE Elo rating is 2526, making her the tenth ranked female player in the world.

Chance start and instant success

Along with elder sister Nadezhda
Nadezhda Kosintseva
Nadezhda Anatolyevna Kosintseva is a Russian chess player. She holds the title of Grandmaster....

, the six-year-old Tatiana became a chess player by virtue of a twist of fate. Wandering home from dance lessons with their mother, the pair happened upon a chess club and decided then and there to take up the game.

As a youngster, she recalls being inspired by a book of former World Champion Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alekhine
Alexander Alexandrovich Alekhine was the fourth World Chess Champion. He is often considered one of the greatest chess players ever.By the age of twenty-two, he was already among the strongest chess players in the world. During the 1920s, he won most of the tournaments in which he played...

's games and was similarly impressed by the games of Garry Kasparov
Garry Kasparov
Garry Kimovich Kasparov is a Russian chess grandmaster, a former World Chess Champion, writer, political activist, and one of the greatest chess players of all time....

 and Bobby Fischer
Bobby Fischer
Robert James "Bobby" Fischer was an American chess Grandmaster and the 11th World Chess Champion. He is widely considered one of the greatest chess players of all time. Fischer was also a best-selling chess author...

.

Soon after, she became a fearsome competitor at the top level of junior chess, her collection of tournament prizes rivalling even her sister's haul. At the World Youth Chess Championship
World Youth Chess Championship
The World Youth Chess Championship is a chess competition for girls and boys under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.The first predecessor of the youth championship was the Cadet Championship. It started off unofficially in 1974 in France for players under 18. The 1975 and 1976 editions were also...

, she earned silver medals at the Under-10 (Cala Galdana, 1996) and Under-12 (Cannes
Cannes
Cannes is one of the best-known cities of the French Riviera, a busy tourist destination and host of the annual Cannes Film Festival. It is a Commune of France in the Alpes-Maritimes department....

, 1997) events. In the Under-10 category of the 1996 European Youth Chess Championship
European Youth Chess Championship
Since 1991, the European chess union organises the European Youth Chess Championship in the groups under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 year. Until 2002, there was also a tournament for the under 20, see European Junior Chess Championship.-Boys winners:...

 held at Rimavska Sobota
Rimavská Sobota
Rimavská Sobota is a town in southern Slovakia, in the Banská Bystrica Region, on the Rimava river. It has 24,374 inhabitants . The town is a historical capital of the Gömör-Kishont county .-Geography:...

 she went one better, that time taking home the gold medal. Silver medals were added at the Euro events in Mureck
Mureck
Mureck is a municipality in the district of Radkersburg in Styria, Austria.-References:...

 (1998) and Kallithea
Kallithea
Kallithea is the 8th largest municipality in Greece and the 4th biggest in the Athens urban area...

 (2000), at Under-12 and Under-18 levels, respectively.

National and European Champion

In 2004 and 2007 Tatiana won the Russian Women's Chess Championship. Coming close in 2006, the sisters finished a half point behind winner Ekaterina Korbut.

Sharing a mutual talent for chess, the sisters are also close companions outside the game; both attend a law course at Pomor University in their hometown and study together. Inevitably, they play side by side in team competitions, most notably at the Chess Olympiad
Chess Olympiad
The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams from all over the world compete against each other. The event is organised by FIDE, which selects the host nation.-Birth of the Olympiad:The first Olympiad was unofficial...

 as part of the Russian Women's national team.

Tatiana Kosintseva was also the winner of the 2007 Women's European Individual Chess Championship with a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2774, and won again in 2009 with a TPR of 2551.

Over the last few years, she has remained marginally the higher-rated of the siblings (although as of November 2011, Nadezhda's rating at 2546 is better).

FIDE Women's Grand Prix

In 2010 Kosintseva won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Nalchik
Nalchik
Nalchik is the capital city of the Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Russia, situated at an altitude of in the foothills of the Caucasus Mountains; about northwest of Beslan in the Republic of North Ossetia–Alania. It covers an area of...

 with a performance rating of 2735. Her score was 9/11 or +7 −0 =4; 1½ points ahead of her nearest rival Hou Yifan
Hou Yifan
Hou Yifan is a Chinese chess prodigy. She is the reigning Women's World Chess Champion, the youngest ever to win the title, as well as the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of Grandmaster.At the age of 12, Hou became the youngest player ever to participate in the FIDE Women's...

. She gained 160 Grand Prix points in Nalchik. Top scorers in the Grand Prix will qualify for the Women's World Chess Championship 2010
Women's World Chess Championship 2010
The Women's World Chess Championship, 2010 took place in Hatay, Turkey from December 2 through 25.The tournament was played in a 64 player knockout type. Each pairing consisted of two games, one with white and one with black. The winner advanced. In case of a tie, tiebreaks were played the next day...

.

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