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	ALUSHTA, CRIMEA: UKRAINE WOMEN'S CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2004, Held in the beautiful Black Sea resort of Alushta [Alusta] in Crimea
	By Olga Alexandrova and Thomas Lemanczyk, From Hotel "Cajka" in Alushta [Alusta], Crimea, Ukraine, Chessbase News, Hamburg, Germany, Sunday, May 23, 2004 The chess tournament winners were WIM Tatiana Kostiuk, WGM Olga Alexandrova, and WIM Evgeniya Doluhanova. ALUSHTA - The Ukraine Women's Championship 2004 was held in the beautiful Black Sea resort of Alushta [Alusta]. The Ukraine Women's championship had 53 participants and was held in the Cajka ("Seagull") hotel. The winners were WIM Tatiana Kostiuk, WGM Olga Alexandrova, and WIM Evgeniya Doluhanova. The championship started with a ferocious 4/4 by WIM Natalia Zdebskaja, who then lost to WIM Evgeniya Doluhanova, who then took over the sole lead with 5½ out of 6. Evgeniya looked like a clear winner, but in the eighth round she was beaten by WGM Olga Alexandrova, who incidentally started the tournament with a loss. In the end Olga won the championship with 7/9. It brought us dazzling chess - and dazzling pictures of young women grandmasters and IMs in beachside circumstances. We remain eternally indebted to the tournament winner and new Ukraine women's champion, Olga Alexandrova, for sending us this pictorial report. The town of Alusta (or Alushta, as we shall call it) lies on the Crimean peninsula on the north of the Black Sea, which is part of the modern Ukraine. It is a seaside resort, popular with the Russian and Ukrainian middle-class. There are many sanatoriums in Alushta, each one with its own piece of beach. There is a long-long promenade along the sea shore and it is covered by many cafes, restaurants, souvenir shops. A great number of chess tournaments have been held in the city - official ones like national championships, and qualification tournaments for world and European championships, international opens, invitationals. NOTE: To read the entire story and see the collection of photographs click on link:http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail.asp?newsid=1660 FOR PERSONAL AND ACADEMIC USE ONLY

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