Alexandra Kosteniuk – The Russian Queen Of Chess

Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk was born April 23, 1984, in the former USSR, and raised in Moscow. She has a sister named Oxana Kosteniuk, who was born three years after her in 1987. Oxana is a Woman FIDE Master level chess player. Kosteniuk set out on a path towards greatness at the age of 5 when her father Konstantin, an officer in the Red Army, quit his military job to begin teaching her the game of chess full-time. His set of rules gave her a limit only to watch 30 minutes of television each day. Every moment was filled with different kinds of activity – e.g., playing soccer with friends, solving a mathematical puzzle, or reading books. Her father was very persistent and always pushed her to do her best. Alexandra hated to sit down doing nothing, so no time was ever idle when she was a child. Instead, she was always exhilarated to sit at the chess table with him and listen to min talking about the chess pieces and how to play the game. Konstantin soon experienced that she was very good to develop her skills methodically.

One of his strategies was inventing different games, all with a chess theme, and little by little, she learned how the pieces move and how to take advantage of each chess piece’s different strengths and weaknesses in the game. He even taught her how to win a chess game blindfolded in three moves when she was still just five to exercise her brain. Alexandra loved to learn something new every day. When her father asked her to solve a puzzle, she would always try to do it since she wanted to make him happy. Alexandra knew that he would be proud of her when she solved it. Once in a while, he would also reward her with chocolates or other goodies to solve a puzzle, and she would treasure those prizes. After only two months of instruction, Alexandra played so well that her father took her to a chess club at the regional youth center. She won every game she played there, followed by victories at regional, as well as national, and international tournaments.

These days, Alexandra lives in Key Biscayne, US, with her husband and Swiss-born manager, Diego Garces, 25 years older than she is, and their baby daughter Francesca, born April 22, 2007. Her mother, Natalia, father, and teenage sister, Oxana, still lives in Moscow. She met her husband at a simultaneous exhibition match in Switzerland, where Kosteniuk – just 16 years old – played against 20 chess enthusiasts all at the same time, constantly moving from table to table. The men’s player was rude, trying to force his opponents to play quickly. Instead, Alexandra was letting people think, giving them time to play the best they could because she knew this was important to the people who had come to the tournament to play her. It could be their big opportunity, and they were relieved and happy. Alexandra is today a member of the ‘Champions for Peace‘ Club. A group of famous elite athletes all committed to serve and help peace in the world through sport. The group was initially created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.

In Alexandra Kosteniuk’s young career, she quickly rose through the ranks to become the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), 1994 European Youth Chess Champion. The tournament was held in Băile Herculane, Rom. Furthermore, she finished second in the girl’s under-10 section of the FIDE World Youth Chess Festival for Peace, held in Szeged, Hung. When she became 11 years old, she graduated to the under-12s category, and the competition intensified significantly. Hence, she began losing. Psychologically it was very hard, but Alexandra’s family supported her and said she was the best and that everything would be better again if she just studied harder, focusing on her game and technique instead of her urge to win. At the time, her father used all his time as her trainer and mentor. Hence, she was responsible for most of the family’s income. Konstantin and her father struggled to find sponsors or donors, and sometimes she played against men to earn money or, more precisely, they would pay to play against her. Prize money was a rarity in children’s tournaments, and life was tough for her parents and younger sister in their three-room apartment in east Moscow.

The following year all her hard work paid off, and she started winning basically everything. Initially, the Russian under-12s championship, followed by the European under-12s championship, the World Championship under-12s, and the Russian rapid chess tournament [where the games last 25 minutes] for women. Furthermore, in 1996 she won the girl’s under-12 section of the FIDE World Youth Chess Festival for Peace, held in Cala Galdana, Minorca. She earned the Woman International Master (W.I.M.) title in 1997 and the Woman Grandmaster (W.G.M.) title in 1998. Moreover, she made it to the finals of the 2001 Women’s World Chess Championship, a “knockout” tournament that was held in Moscow when she was 17 but lost to Zhu Chen from China. Kosteniuk continued her one-way climb to the top, becoming the 10th woman to earn the rank of international grandmaster. She trained with a team of other chess grandmasters to improve and entered several South Florida 5K tournaments. Additionally, she returned to Russia to win the Women’s World Championship and the $60,000 prize, including a jewel-encrusted tiara.

In 2004 Kosteniuk entered and won the FIDE Women’s European Chess Championship, held in Dresden, Germany. This victory earned her the (men’s) International Grandmaster (GM) title. The year after, in 2005, she also won the FIDE Women’s Russian Chess Championship, held in Samara, Russia – and in 2006, she became the first woman champion of chess960, which is also known as the Fischer chess because it was invented by the famous American world chess champion Bobby Fischer. A game type in which the chess pieces are shuffled along with each player’s rank (with certain restrictions) before the play begins. Furthermore, Kosteniuk also won the prestigious 2008 FIDE Women’s World Chess Championship in Nalchik, Russia. She won the final by defeating the up-and-coming Chinese chess player Hou Yifan, with a score of 1 win, three draws, and 0 losses. Bottom line, the many titles haven’t given Kosteniuk worldwide fame. She gets noticed sometimes in the streets of Moscow, but in Miami, she is just like anyone else. On the other side, her many wins during the years opened doors to the modeling industry, giving her several opportunities to begin a modeling career.

Alexandra Kosteniuk has always been forthright about her career as a chess genius. She was number two in the world for girl chess players and at the top among women. Subsequently, she became an esteemed grandmaster of chess at the age of 14, which basically means that she has regularly beaten many good players at big tournaments. Her grandiose titles and many victories weren’t enough to Kosteniuk, who attempted a bolder move, trying to make chess sexy with her looks and how she presented herself in interviews and magazines. The Swiss-based company Fédération International Des Échecs (Fide) asked Alexandra to become their new poster girl, modeling a new range of chess wear. Her dark eyes, youthful lines, and confident smile conjured a new vision of chess. Previously the chess image was reserved for tweed jackets, confused American geniuses hiding in Prague, and older men in parks and, now it became something new fresh, and attractive.

After that first encounter with the modeling scene, Kosteniuk explained her views in an interview, stating that “chess is not that spectacular a sport for the television, but it deserves more attention and investment. It can be made as exciting as tennis or football, and I will try to change things. I am lucky to be clever enough to play chess, and I have the looks to be able to model”. Mixing the chess world with a life before the lens felt natural to her. When she was a child, she played a game with her little sister where her sister was a photographer, and she was a model. Koseniuk even sent several letters to competitions to become a model but never heard back. Later on, she became a rarity – a beautiful young Russian girl who became a chess master at a young age, which finally allowed her to pursue her modeling dream and career besides her chess career and effort to be a mother and wife.

In August 2000, Alexandra was discovered by the Russian film community. Alexandra was offered a small role in a film by the famous director Stanislav Govorukhin and accepted. In September 2003, the movie premiered in Pushkinsky, one of Moscow’s most famous movie theatres. It is called “Blagoslovite Zhenshinu” in Russian, which translates to “Bless the Woman.” It is a beautiful and emotional love story of a Russian woman during the war period, from 1935 to 1957. In January 2002, the Swiss watch manufacturer Balmain, also known in fashion, came along and became her sponsor while making her their Ambassador to promote their products worldwide. After that, she embarked on a career in beauty and glamour, appearing in countless magazines, such as the popular Russian youth magazine Yat, where she was presented with a front page and an article. Furthermore, in several TV shows as a beautiful representative of chess. She was even invited to feature on CNN and Fox TV in the US. She is still active in both chess and modeling.

Alexandra Kosteniuk takes months to prepare for the big competitions. While the prize money seems attractive – her World Champion title, for example, earned her $50,000 – but that prize money was used to the costs of training and travel. In the preparation period, she paid three other grandmasters to help her be ready for the tournament. In addition, her husband utilizes profits from a company he used to own in Russia, combined with different ventures such as her website, publications, and promotional videos, as well as their day-to-day living costs. To Kosteniuk, who is still reveling in the joys and novelty of motherhood, such a lifestyle has its challenges. Even though it’s her big passion, chess is no longer the central love and focus of her life – she has won everything there is to win, and the days of relentless competition are winding down. Her future priority is to be a mother to her child, but she will teach her daughter to play as soon as the time is right. In the meantime, she plans to keep studying, keep playing, and generally enjoy life with her family.

Furthermore, Alexandra and her husband also run a charitable foundation that buys chess books and sets for children, in a concept where Kosteniuk gives them free lessons whenever possible. She dreams of opening a chess academy to raise new generations of chess players and, perhaps, even future world champions. The pair decided to make South Florida their home because Kosteniuk prefers the weather to Moscow’s, and Garces’ parents live here. An added perk: They are close to the World Chess Hall of Fame, situated just off the turnpike in West Kendall, Fla., where there is an Alexandra the Great exhibit highlighting Kosteniuk’s successes. The museum is not the only one trumpeting her talents. The chess news site ChessBase.com hails her “very analytical, incisive mind and an extremely determined spirit.” Jerry Hanken, president of Chess Journalists of America, says he hopes she will inspire more women and young people to play.

Moreover, Alexandra Kosteniuk has always considered chess as a sport. In one of her many interviews, she said: “Unfortunately, chess is not as popular as it used to be. However, chess has a lot of potential worldwide, and we have 171 affiliated federations. After spending all my life in the sport, I see the need to help chess in some way”. Kosteniuk has been doing a lot of work to promote chess, including traveling around the world, lectures, seminars, and first and foremost lots of interviews and general promotion of the sport in newspapers, magazines, podcasts, and on tv. She believes her approach has been working for the good of the sport, which has witnessed a renaissance with an increased following in recent times, partly due to initiatives from FIDE, the world governing body for the sport. It’s self-evident that Kosteniuk loves chess in every aspect of the game, and she is convinced that it helps a lot of kids and gives them new and exciting opportunities. She also believes that chess has a huge advantage as the distance doesn’t matter. Everyone can play it, as an amateur or professional, even though the world, countries, or cities are in Covid-19 lockdown.