The 8th edition of the Vera Menchik memorial concluded yesterday in England’s capital. The event gathered 10 invited female players who competed throughout 9 round-robin rounds. The tournament was dedicated to the memory of the first women’s world chess champion Vera Menchik (1906-1944) and marked 80 years of her death.
IM Harriet Hunt (England, 2307) emerged convincing winner of the event with the score of 7 points. Harriet Hunt opened the event with almost perfect 4.5/5, but then suffered a loss to WFM Andreea-Marioara Cosman (Romania, 2115). Harriet bounced back and secured gold with her last-round victory against WIM Fiona Steil-Antoni (Luxembourg, 2154).
WFM Andreea-Marioara Cosman (Romania, 2115) showed amazing play in the event and scored 6.5 points to tie with GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (Scotland, 2290) for the second place. Cosman earned 55.4 rating points and performed with impressive 2347 rating.
The top-seeded IM Marta Garcia Martin (Spain, 2356) finished the event with 5.5 points and clear 4th place. English rising star WCM Bodhana Sivanandan (England, 2088) started the event immediately after landing from the Reykjavik Chess Open. Bodhana scored 3 points and lost some rating points, but showed determination to work harder towards the top. Final rankings are shown below
Photos by Tournament Director Agnieszka Milewska, Director of Women’s Chess in England.
8th Vera Menchik Memorial – Final rankings:
| Rk. | Name | FED | Rtg | TB1 | |
| 1 | IM | Hunt, Harriet V | ENG | 2307 | 7 |
| 2 | WFM | Cosman, Andreea-Marioara | ROU | 2115 | 6.5 |
| GM | Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan E | SCO | 2290 | 6.5 | |
| 4 | IM | Garcia Martin, Marta | ESP | 2356 | 5.5 |
| 5 | WGM | Navrotescu, Andreea-Cristiana | FRA | 2200 | 5 |
| 6 | Hryshchenko, Kamila | ENG | 2186 | 4 | |
| 7 | WCM | Subramanian, Anusha | ENG | 1997 | 3.5 |
| 8 | WCM | Sivanandan, Bodhana | ENG | 2088 | 3 |
| 9 | WIM | Steil-Antoni, Fiona | LUX | 2154 | 2 |
| WFM | Smith, Olivia | WLS | 2054 | 2 |
