IM Anna Zozulia plays Arctic Chess Challenge 2009
IM Anna Zozulia (2341) is one of the strongest female players during ACC 2009.
It's always nice with chess couples and this year the top male player is Bartosz Socko and he brings with him his wife, top female player Monika Socko! We also have GM Vadim Malakhatko with his wife IM Anna Zozulia who comes back to Tromsø after playing last years edition too and they was a very nice couple which we look forward to see again during Arctic Chess Challenge 2009.
IM Anna Zozulia was born in 1980 in Ukraine like her husband GM Vadim Malakhatko. They both live in Belgium now and plays under the Belgian flag. As a professional chess couple they travel a lot and is known on the European chess circuit. Zozulia was 7 years old when she learned the game of chess. She won many medals in the Ukraine Junior Championships of various age categories in her youth and representet her country on many occations at the European Youth and World Youth Championships. Her best performance was a Gold Medal at World Youth Girls under 16 at Cala Gandala 1996. She also has two Silver Medals from the European Youth Championships of Europe for girls under 16 at Zagan 1995 and girls under 18 at Mureck 1998. She achived the IM-title (men's conditions) in 2004 and her Elo-peak is 2412 from the same year. Anna is a devoted 1.e4 player with an aggressive style. She has both the Kings Indian and the Sicilian in her opening repertoire as black.
Here is a combination from Anna Zozulia. White has just played 22.Bxh6 with a dangerous attack - what to do with black?
Stephen Fairbairn - Anna Zozulia, Isle of Man International 2007, black to move:
22...Rf1+! 23.Bxf1 Nf3+ The point, even though the white Queen is hanging black will take at h4 in case of Kh1 and the mate threat at f1 wins a lot of material! 24.Kg2 This makes it easy as h4 falls with check, but after 24.Kh1 Nxh4! (much better than 24...Nxd2 25.Bxd2+) 25.Bg2 Bxe2 26.Bxg7 Qxg7 27.Qxe2 Nxg2 and black obviously have a winning edge. White has nothing better to do and is lost after 22....Rf1+!] 24...Nxh4+ and white gave up. 0-1. After 25.gxh4 Qg4+ black deliver mate in next move. A nice counterblow!
Here you can find the game
Arctic Chess Challenge 2009 starts in Tromsø 1st of August. So far it has 14 GMs and 15 IMs, among a record high 132 participants so far, and still counting... You can find the chessgames of IM Anna Zozulia at chessgames.com.
The Chess Phantom Blog - as this blog is called in Norwegian - will blog in English till mid August due to this International event in Tromsø which is part of Norways and Tromsø's program to make a bid for the Chess Olympics in 2014. You find the official site of Tromsø 2014 here.
