Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant

Infobox chess player


playername = Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
|caption= Arakhamia-Grant in 2008
birthname = Ketevan Revazovna Arakhamia
country = SCO
datebirth = birth date and age|1968|7|19
placebirth = Ochamchira, USSR (now Georgia)
datedeath =
placedeath =
title = International Master, Woman Grandmaster
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating = 2448 (October 2008)
peakrating = 2490 (January 1997)

Ketevan Revazovna Arakhamia-Grant (née Arakhamia, born Ochamchira, July 19, 1968) is a Georgian (former USSR) International Master of chess now resident in Scotland.

The promise shown by the young Arakhamia was rewarded in 1985, when she won the World Junior Chess Championship for Girls, held in Dobrna (and taking silver in Adelaide three years later). Very soon thereafter, she fulfilled the criteria for the Woman International Master title and this was awarded in 1986. Encouraged by these early successes, she quickly developed aspirations to become a Women's World Championship contender and in the course of the qualification cycles of the late eighties and early nineties, proved that she had the ability to compete at the top level. Second place behind Nana Ioseliani in her first Interzonal at Tuzla 1987 was an inspirational start, but she then went on to surpass all expectations by winning the 1993 event in Jakarta and the 1995 event in Kishinev, ahead of most of the world's best players. Sadly, having qualified so impressively each time, her performances were much less convincing in the respective Candidates Tournaments and this ruled out an opportunity to play for the world title.

Aside from world championship competitions, in 1990 she took first place at both the Biel Women's Open and Geneva (IM), then followed up by winning the prestigious Doeberl Cup in Canberra, Australia in 1991; the first woman to do so. Her participation at the Hastings Premier in 1993/94, was also a notable success, finishing ahead of six male grandmasters and having defeated three of them on her way to a share of third place. In respect of women competitors at Hastings, the result was second only to that of Judit Polgar.

The nineties continued to be hectic for Arakhamia as she jetted around the world participating in the "Veterans vs Ladies" dance-themed tournaments. Retired and semi-retired masters of the calibre of Ivkov, Hort, Smyslov and Taimanov all lost games to the Georgian WGM in these contests.

In 1996, she married Scotsman Jonathan Grant, also a chess player, and they settled in Edinburgh, later giving birth to daughter Elena.

In team chess, Arakhamia made the most auspicious Olympiad debut ever at Novi Sad in 1990, representing the USSR Ladies team as first reserve and registering a perfect 12/12 score. This was just the beginning of an enviable Olympiad medal haul with the Soviet and then Georgian Ladies Teams, totalling nine in all, and including two team and three individual gold medals. Yet more honours were earned at the European Team Championships; a team gold at Pula in 1997 and team silver medals in 1992 and 2005.

Despite moving to the UK, Arakhamia continued to represent Georgia for many years, through membership of its national chess federation. She was the Georgian Ladies Champion in 1983, 1984 and 1990. From January 2008 however, she has switched to her adopted country and will therefore be eligible to represent Scotland at the Dresden 2008 Olympiad.

Post-millennium, her chess activities have continued to bring prizes, commencing with a bronze medal at the Women's European Individual Championship at Warsaw in 2001. She was Scottish champion jointly with Paul Motwani in 2003 (the first ever woman to achieve the honour) and has enjoyed unbridled success at the British Championship, taking the Ladies' Champion titles of 2003, 2004, 2006 and 2007. The 2006 victory was close to being a real sensation, when she finished just a half point behind overall Championship winner Jonathan Rowson. This was easily the best result ever by a woman in the British Championship and concluded with a 4½/5 finish, including a win against Nick Pert in the last round. Despite the near miss, there was still cause for further celebration, as 2006 was also the year that her husband took first place in the Scottish Championship, making them the first ever husband-wife pair to win a full national championship. There was also time for a trip back to Georgia, where at Batumi, she assisted the Australian squad by coaching their Under-10 Girls at the World Youth Chess Championship.

2007 got off to a good start when she beat former U.S. Champion Hikaru Nakamura at Gibraltar, in a 100 move first round encounter. Nurturing small advantages and grinding out lengthy wins against strong opponents appears not to faze her. Few would argue with chess journalist John Saunders when he describes Arakhamia as the ideal role model—"her charming and dignified manner belies a tough, determined fighter at the board". Gibraltar was followed by two trips that were intended to be part holiday, part competition. The chess should have been fairly relaxed, but at Calvia, she ended up needing a win in the last round against a strong grandmaster to secure her second GM norm. She duly obliged. Then at Philadelphia, while visiting her sister, she played the World Open and unexpectedly finished top woman. As the tournament was a qualifier for the MonRoi Women's Grand Prix, she earned a place in the Montreal finale, held just a few weeks later. There, she shared the lead after 5 rounds and finished in joint fourth place (Pia Cramling won). As part of the Liverpool European Capital of Culture festivities, she played in the United Kingdom vs China match and was top scorer for the UK with 4/6, although China won the match.

In league chess, Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant plays for "OSC Baden-Baden" in the Women's Bundesliga and for Georgian team "Interplast Tbilisi" in the European Club Cup. She has also previously played in the British 4NCL, representing "Wood Green".

Notable games

Lidia Semenova vs Ketevan Arakhamia, Jakarta Interzonal, 1993, Torre Attack, 0-11.d4 d5 2. Bg5 Nd7 3.Nf3 Ngf6 4.Nbd2 g6 5.c3 Bg7 6.Qc2 0-0 7.e4 dxe4 8.Nxe4 Nxe4 9.Qxe4 Nf6 10. Bxf6? exf6! 11.0-0-0 Bh6+ 12.Nd2 Bf5! 13.Qxb7 c5! 14.dxc5 Re8 15.Bc4 Re7 16.Qb4 Rb8 17.Qa4 Reb7 18.b3 a5 19.Rhe1! Rb4 20.Re8+! Qxe8 21.Qxe8+ Rxe8 22.cxb4 axb4 23.c6 Ra8 24.c7 Bf4 25.Re1 Bxc7 25.Re7 Bf4 27.Rxf7 Kh8 28.g3 Be5 29.Kd1 Bc3 30.Nf1 Rxa2 31.Ne3 Be4 32.Rf8+ Kg7 33.Rg8+ Kh6 34.Ng4+ Kg5 35.h3 Ra1+ 36.Ke2 Re1 mate 0-1 White's resourceful defence is still no match for black's powerful bishop pair.

Stuart Conquest vs Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, British Ch. Edinburgh, 2003, Grunfeld Defence, 0-11.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.cxd5 Nxd5 5.Bd2 Bg7 6.e4 Nb6 7.Be3 0-0 8.Bb5!? Be6!? 9.Nf3 Nc4 10.Bxc4 Bxc4 11.h4 Nd7 12.h5 c5! 13.d5 f5! 14.hxg6 hxg6 15.Bh6?! Bxc3! 16.bxc3 fxe4! 17.Bxf8 exf3 18.Qxf3 Nxf8 19.Rd1 Qd6 20.Qe4 b5 21.f4 Rd8 22.Kf2 Bxd5 23.Qe3 Qe6! 24.Qg3 Rd6 25.Rhe1 Qf6 26.Kg1 Bxa2 27.f5 Bc4 28.fxg6 Nxg6 29.Qe3 Rxd1 30.Rxd1 Nf4 31.Rd8+ Kf7 32.Rd2 Nd5! 33.Qxc5 Qf1+ 34.Kh2 Qf4+ 0-1 Black's powerful pawn strikes in the centre are typical of the Grunfeld. The game won the Alexander best game prize.

References

*cite book | author=Whyld, Kenneth | title=Guinness Chess, The Records | publisher=Guinness Publishing Ltd | year=1986 | id=ISBN 0851124550
* [http://www.olimpbase.org Olimpbase] - Olympiads and other Team event information.
* [http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2008/publicity_eng/competitors.html Short pre-Gibraltar 2008 biography] by John Saunders.
*CHESS magazine - Vol 71, No.8 (Nov 2006) - British Ch. success and (Conquest) gamescore.
*CHESS magazine - Vol 59, No.1 (April 1994) - pg. 8 Hastings result, pg. 9 Jakarta Interzonal result and (Semenova) gamescore.

External links

* [http://www.chessgames.com/player/ketevan_arakhamia-grant.html Arakhamia-Grant's games at Chessgames.com]
*fide|id=13600168|name=Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant