The European Women's Championship takes place in Dresden, Germany March 21 till April 3, 2004.

Scottish interest is represented by 11th seed Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant of Edinburgh (current joint Scottish champion with Paul Motwani) and Seigrun MacGilchrist of Maybole. Full information is available at Chessbase.com and the official website. Games will be covered live on the Playchess.com server.

		1.	Cramling, Pia		2488	SWE
		2.	Stefanova, Antoaneta		2478	BUL
		3.	Kosteniuk, Alexandra		2469	RUS
		4.	Zhukova, Nataliya		2462	UKR
		5.	Dzagnidze, Nana		2457	GEO
		6.	Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina		2451	RUS
		7.	Kosintseva, Tatiana		2447	RUS
		8.	Radziewicz, Iweta		2442	POL
		9.	Peptan, Corina-Isabela		2439	ROM
		10.	Alexandrova, Olga		2437	UKR
		11.	Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan		2435	GEO

Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia beat Zhaoqin Peng of Holland in a rapidplay tie-break to take the Women's European title in Dresden, Germany earlier this month. Kosteniuk, 19, has been dubbed the Anna Kournikova of Chess as she pursues parallel acting, modelling and chess careers.
  Kosteniuk won the first 15-minute tie-break against Peng and drew the second after both players had scored 9.5/12. You wonder how the women managed to cope, four years ago the majority of Scotland's top male players decided they couldn't face the trauma of speed play-offs if the Scottish Championship title was tied.
  Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant of Edinburgh shared 7th= place with 8/12 and qualifies for the women's world championship in 2006. Siegrun Macgilchrist of Maybole finished on three points scoring two wins, both against Turkish players. 108 competitors. 

  Euro Women's Championship Dresden rd 6, White: Kete Arakhamia-Grant (Georgia, 2435), Black: Elena Sedina (Italy, 2393), 1 e4 e6 2 d4 d5 3 Nc3 Bb4 4 e5 Ne7 5 a3 Bxc3+ 6 bxc3 c5 7 Nf3 Qc7 8 a4 h6 This looks like a beginner's move but it has even been played by GM Nigel Short. Black waits for White to "waste" a move with Bd3, when she will try and swap the star attacker with b6, Ba6. 9 Bd3 b6 10 0–0 Ba6 11 a5 Lev Psakhis mentions 11 Nh4 (idea Qg4) in his recent Batsford book French Defence 3 Nc3 Bb4.11...Qc6 12 Ba3 Bxd3 13 cxd3 Nd7 14 dxc5 bxc5 15 d4 Rc8 16 Qe2 0–0 17 Rfb1 Rfe8 18 dxc5 Nxc5 19 Nd4 Qa8 20 a6! The idea is to support Rb7 shutting the queen out on the silly a8 square. 20...Ne4 Or 20...Ng6 21 Bxc5 Rxc5 22 Rb7 when Rxc3 blunders to 23 Nb5. 21 Rb7 Ng6 Not 21...Nxc3? since White has a simple double attack against c3 and f7 with 22 Qf3! when 22...Nf5 23 Nxf5 exf5 24 Qxf5 wins easily. 22 Bd6 Also 22 Bb4 Nxe5? 23 f3. 22...Rxc3 23 Nb5 (BOLD-OFF)White wins material with the threat of Nc7 fork.(BOLD-ON) 23...Rc6 24 Nc7 Qc8 25 Nxe8 Rc2 If 25...Qxe8 26 Qb5 Nc3 27 Qb2 Black has nothing to show for the material deficit. 26 Qe3 d4 With the idea 27 Qxe4 Rc1+ although even that might still be winning after 28 Qe1. 27 Qe1 d3 28 Nf6+ There doesn't seem too much wrong with 28 Rb8 either. 28...gxf6 29 Rb8 Nxd6 30 Rxc8+ Nxc8 31 exf6 Nf4? 31...d2 32 Qe3 Nd6 would hang on slightly longer. 32 Qe3 d2 33 Qxf4 Nb6 34 Qxh6 1–0.