Rusudan Goletiani: Fantastic Result in New York Super Summer Action Open

Rusudan Goletiani, age 19, who has won three world chess championships in various age groups and who arrived in America from her native Georgia on May 12, achieved a fantastic result in the New York Super Summer Action Open by defeating a grandmaster rated 2608, drawing a grandmaster rated 2609 and defeating an International Master rated 2546, all in the same tournament.

This must be among the most remarkable achievements by any woman chess player in history (not counting the achievements by Judit Polgar, of course).

Rusudan Goletiani

Her result in the tournament was ruined by her last round loss to master Boris Privman (2287), but still scoring 2 1/2 out of 3 against such highly rated players is a remarkable achievement.

In her game against Grandmaster Darmen Sadvaksov, Rusudan says that she had a bad game in the final recorded position. Later, however, her position got better and she was winning, but then she blundered a rook and was lost.

However, her opponent offered her a draw, because both of their flags were falling. She accepted.

Rusudan says that she rarely offers her opponent a draw, because she does not think it is a good idea.

(I have never heard a strong player say that.)

I asked Rusudan how she is able to achieve such good results when I have never seen her study chess. She also does own a chess set. She says that it is true: She has never studied chess. I am sure that playing unorthodox openings helps make this possible. (She usually plays an early b3 with white and an early b6 with black). It is also possible that Rusudan is just naturally brilliant.

The New York Super Summer Action Open was a small but incredibly strong event. It had only 14 players but was a Grand Prix event, so many strong players played to get the grand prix points and a shot at the $25,000 in Grand Prix prizes. The tournament was so strong that even though Rusudan Goletiani is rated 2425, she was in the bottom half of the tournament and played a grandmaster rated 2609 in the first round.

Steve Immitt directed. The tournament was held at the Marshall Chess Club on July 8.

Here are the games by Rusudan Goletiani. Please note however that these games were played under sudden death rules, so in some of the games the last moves were not recorded. Her games against Grandmasters Blatny and Sadvaksov and against NM Privman went much longer. In the final recorded position against Blatny, she has a clearly winning position, effectively a pawn ahead in a rook and pawn ending.

Sam Sloan


[Event "NY Super Summer Action Open"]
[Site "Marshall Chess Club"]
[Date "2000.07.08"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Sadvakasov, Darmen"]
[Black "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "B40"]
[WhiteElo "2609"]
[BlackElo "2425"]
[PlyCount "69"]
[EventDate "2000.07.08"]

1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 e6 3. b3 b6 4. d4 cxd4 5. Nxd4 Bb7 6. Bd3 a6 7. O-O Qc7 8. Bb2
Nf6 9. Qe2 d6 10. c4 Nbd7 11. Nc3 Be7 12. Kh1 O-O 13. f4 Rfe8 14. Rae1 g6 15.
f5 Bf8 16. fxe6 fxe6 17. Nf3 Bg7 18. Bb1 Ng4 19. Ng5 Nge5 20. Qe3 h6 21. Nf3
Rf8 22. Nd4 Rxf1+ 23. Rxf1 Re8 24. Nce2 Nf8 25. Qh3 Qe7 26. Nf4 Bc8 27. Nde2
Nfd7 28. Nd3 Nxd3 29. Bxg7 Kxg7 30. Qxd3 Ne5 31. Qd4 Rf8 32. Rd1 Qh4 33. Kg1
Kg8 34. h3 Qg5 35. Qxb6 1/2-1/2

[Event "NY Super Summer Action Open"]
[Site "Marshall Chess Club"]
[Date "2000.07.08"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Black "Blatny, Pavel"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "A04"]
[WhiteElo "2425"]
[BlackElo "2608"]
[PlyCount "89"]
[EventDate "2000.07.08"]

1. Nf3 b6 2. b3 Bb7 3. Bb2 d6 4. d4 Nd7 5. e3 g6 6. Be2 Bg7 7. c4 c5 8. Nc3
cxd4 9. exd4 Ngf6 10. O-O Ne4 11. Nxe4 Bxe4 12. Re1 O-O 13. Bd3 Bb7 14. Qe2 Re8
15. Be4 d5 16. Bxd5 Bxd5 17. cxd5 Nf6 18. Ne5 Qxd5 19. Rac1 Rac8 20. Qa6 Qa8
21. Rc4 Nd5 22. g3 Rxc4 23. bxc4 Nb4 24. Qa4 Bxe5 25. Qxb4 Bf6 26. d5 Bxb2 27.
Qxb2 Qc8 28. Qb5 Kf8 29. Qb2 f6 30. Qd4 Qd7 31. h4 e5 32. Qe3 Kg7 33. Qb3 Qd6
34. f4 Qc5+ 35. Kg2 f5 36. Qc2 e4 37. Qc3+ Kf7 38. h5 gxh5 39. Rh1 Kg6 40. Qc2
Qe3 41. Qd1 Qf3+ 42. Qxf3 exf3+ 43. Kxf3 Rc8 44. Rc1 Kf6 45. Ke3 1-0

[Event "NY Super Summer Action Open"]
[Site "Marshall Chess Club"]
[Date "2000.07.08"]
[Round "3"]
[White "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Black "Schwartz, Ylon"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "B01"]
[WhiteElo "2425"]
[BlackElo "2366"]
[PlyCount "54"]
[EventDate "2000.07.08"]

1. e4 d5 2. exd5 Nf6 3. d4 Bg4 4. Nf3 Qxd5 5. Be2 Nc6 6. O-O e6 7. c4 Qf5 8.
Be3 Bd6 9. Nc3 O-O 10. Nb5 Rfd8 11. Nxd6 Rxd6 12. Qb3 b6 13. Rad1 Rad8 14. Qc3
Qa5 15. Qxa5 Nxa5 16. b4 Bxf3 17. gxf3 Nc6 18. c5 Rd5 19. Bc4 Rf5 20. b5 Ne7
21. Bd3 Rfd5 22. Be4 R5d7 23. c6 Rd6 24. Bf4 Rxd4 25. Rxd4 Rxd4 26. Bxc7 Nfd5
27. Bb8 Nc8 0-1

[Event "NY Super Summer Action Open"]
[Site "Marshall Chess Club"]
[Date "2000.07.08"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Gaprindashvili, Valerian"]
[Black "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E48"]
[WhiteElo "2425"]
[BlackElo "2546"]
[PlyCount "36"]
[EventDate "2000.07.08"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd3 d5 6. cxd5 Qxd5 7. Nf3 b6 8. Qe2
Bb7 9. O-O Qh5 10. e4 Nbd7 11. a3 Be7 12. b4 c5 13. dxc5 bxc5 14. b5 Rac8 15.
Bb2 Bd6 16. Rac1 Bf4 17. Rcd1 Ne5 18. Nxe5 Qxh2# 0-1

[Event "NY Super Summer Action Open"]
[Site "Marshall Chess Club"]
[Date "2000.07.08"]
[Round "5"]
[White "Goletiani, Rusudan"]
[Black "Privman, Boris"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "C41"]
[WhiteElo "2425"]
[BlackElo "2287"]
[PlyCount "59"]
[EventDate "2000.07.08"]

1. e4 d6 2. d4 e5 3. Nf3 Nd7 4. Nc3 c6 5. Be2 Be7 6. O-O Ngf6 7. a4 O-O 8. b3
Qc7 9. Ba3 Re8 10. a5 Nf8 11. Qd3 Ne6 12. g3 Nd7 13. b4 exd4 14. Nxd4 Nxd4 15.
Qxd4 Bf6 16. Qd2 d5 17. Bd3 dxe4 18. Rae1 Ne5 19. Bxe4 Bh3 20. Qf4 Bxf1 21.
Kxf1 Qd7 22. Bf5 Ng6 23. Rxe8+ Qxe8 24. Bxg6 Bxc3 25. Bd3 Qe5 26. Qf3 Qe1+ 27.
Kg2 Qa1 28. a6 bxa6 29. Qxc6 Rf8 30. Bc1 0-1

UPDATE: Rusudan Goletiani makes the US Chess Federation news

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