Alexandra Kosteniuk

Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk (Russian: Александра Константиновна Костенюк; born 23 April 1984) is a Russian and Swiss chess grandmaster who was the Women's World Chess Champion from 2008 to 2010 and Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021. She was European women's champion in 2004 and a two-time Russian Women's Chess Champion (in 2005 and 2016). Kosteniuk won the team gold medal playing for Russia at the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2010, 2012 and 2014; the Women's World Team Chess Championship of 2017; and the Women's European Team Chess Championships of 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017 and the Women's Chess World Cup 2021. In 2022, due to sanctions imposed on Russian players after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she switched federations, and since March 2023 she has represented Switzerland.

Kosteniuk learned to play chess at the age of five after being taught by her father. She graduated in 2003 from the Russian State Academy of Physical Education in Moscow as a certified professional chess trainer. As a child, she played casual chess for money, in order to earn resources for chess trips.

Kosteniuk won the girls under 10 division of the European Youth Chess Championship in 1994 and the girls under 12 title at both the European Youth Championships and World Youth Chess Championships in 1996. At twelve years of age she also became the Russian women's champion in rapid chess.

In 2001, at the age of 17, she reached the final of the World Women's Chess Championship won by Zhu Chen.

Kosteniuk became European women's champion by winning the tournament in Dresden, Germany. As she achieved this with a performance rating above 2600, she was awarded the grandmaster title in November 2004, becoming the tenth woman to receive the highest title of the World Chess Federation (FIDE). Before that, she had also obtained the titles of Woman Grandmaster in 1998 and International Master in 2000.

In 2005, she won the Russian Women's Championship.

Kosteniuk worked as a model and also acted in the film Bless the Woman by Stanislav Govorukhin.

Kosteniuk is a member of the "Champions for Peace" club, a group of 54 famous elite athletes committed to serving peace in the world through sport, created by Peace and Sport, a Monaco-based international organization.

Together with 43 other Russian elite chess players, Kosteniuk signed an open letter to Russian president Vladimir Putin protesting against the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Born in Perm, Kosteniuk moved to Moscow in 1985. She has a younger sister named Oksana, who is a Woman FIDE Master-level chess player.

Kosteniuk has dual Swiss-Russian citizenship. She married Swiss-born businessman Diego Garces born in 1959, who is of Colombian descent, at eighteen years old. On 22 April 2007 she gave birth to a daughter, Francesca Maria. Francesca was born two-and-a-half months premature, but made a full recovery after an eight-week stay in the hospital.

The World vs Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2004, Sicilian Defense: Najdorf Variation. English Attack (B90), 0–1

Alexandra Kosteniuk vs Alexander Onischuk, Corus, Group B 2005, Spanish Game: Classical Variation (C65), 1–0

Anna Ushenina vs Alexandra Kosteniuk, WWCh. 2008, Nimzo-Indian Defense: Classical, Noa Variation (E34), 0–1

Nodirbek Abdusattorov vs Alexandra Kostenuik, WR Chess 2024, Caro-Cann Defence: Tartakower Variation (B15), 0-1