WOMEN’S INTERNATIONAL NORM TOURNAMENT
Wednesday 15th To Sunday 19th February 2023
As part of its bicentenary celebrations Edinburgh Chess Club is hosting the “She Plays To Win” (SPTW) chess tournament, being organised by International Master Lorin D’Costa, promoting the attainment of Woman International Master (WIM) norms.
This is an invitational 10 player WIM all-play-all (double rounds at 10am and 3pm with on Sunday one final game). There is a stellar international competitors list:
 
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant |
Edinburgh based Grand Master Ketevan (Keti) Arakhamia-Grant, is one of Scotland’s leading players having participated in eleven chess Olympiads representing first USSR, then Georgia and finally Scotland and who has won the Scottish Open Championship 3 times |
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Two of Slovakia’s top women players: Woman International Master (WIM) Svetlana Sucikova, currently undertaking her research work in Scotland, and Woman FIDE Master (WFM) Monika Rojickova |
 
Svetlana Sucikova |
 
Fiona Steil-Antoni |
Luxembourg WIM chess player, chess YouTube streamer and commentator Fiona Steil-Antoni |
| Dutch WFM Maaike Keetman, who is also vice president of content (and author!) for Chessable |  
Maaike Keetman |
 
Louise Head Zoe Varney Kamila Hryshchenko |
A strong contingent of English players including WFM and English Women’s Chess Champion (in 2017, 2019 and 2021) Louise Head, who is currently undertaking her doctorate at Edinburgh University, along with Kamila Hryshchenko, who was part of the GB team at the World Congress of Chess Composition 2022 in Fujairah, and Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Zoe Varney, who was the English U20 Woman Champion in 2019
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From Andorra WFM Andrea Henderson De La Fuente is competing |
 
Andrea Henderson De La Fuente |
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Last but not least is Suzie Cooke who is also one of Scotland’s top players and who represented Scotland at the recent Olympiads in Chennai |
Suzie CookeWe have the pairings now for the tournament and the first-round draw is:
The remaining draw can be found at (see https://chess-results.com/tnr718264.aspx?lan=1&art=2).
A FIDE all-play-all Challengers event is also being run in parallel with players from England, India and Scotland. Arbiters are International Arbiter Alex McFarlane and FIDE Arbiter David Clayton.
The event is also being supported by Chess Scotland.
SPTW is a UK Girls Chess Project to try and encourage more girls to participate and learn chess in a fun environment. SPTW is run by the current England International Women’s Chess Coach Lorin D’Costa who has successfully been coaching girls’ chess nationally and internationally for over 11 years.
Further details are on both the club’s web site (www.edinburghchessclub.co.uk) and Chess Scotland’s web site (www.chessscotland.com/).