 She started playing chess at five, a prodigy who went on to become world champion. Over the board, she's aggressive, she's fearless. She inspires. Here in Gibraltar, the world's strongest women players are fighting with the world's best for a record prize fund. Women Chess is fundamental to the trade-wise Gibraltar chess festival. She is one of our stars. You know her as the chess queen? Grandmaster Alexandra Kostinuik Hi Alexandra, welcome to the trade-wise Gibraltar chess festival. Welcome back. How does it feel to be here? It's fine. Well, the tournament is just starting. So, all the games are ahead of me. I'll see how it goes. You never know. How did you begin playing chess? How did it start for you? For kids, most of the things start with their parents. In my family, chess started with my father. It was his idea. He started to teach my sister and I. I have a younger sister. That definitely helped to have a sibling next to me because we had some kind of competition. It didn't last long. Well, I don't know, fortunately or unfortunately for my sister. But somehow my father didn't have enough time to spend with both of us when I started travelling. He went to travel with me and more tournaments came. So, somehow my sister decided to take another route, which is also a very nice idea. What was that like growing up in a country where chess has such a strong history and culture to experience that? What was that like, the whole scenario? My whole chess journey was not that bright all the years that I went through. Because I had wonderful years when I was winning most of the tournaments in my age category. And then I had disastrous years when I was losing all the time. And I was also growing in such a moment where we had problems, political problems. The Soviet Union collapsed and Russia was struggling in the first years. What's good that, yeah, because of this Soviet chess school, I've always had a very strong competition despite the situation in the country. And this competition, you have to have strong players next to you that you compete with and you try, well, you grow together. Definitely having a great chess culture and many chess stars, men and women help because you have to have role models, especially for young kids. They have to see what they're aiming for, they have to be motivated somehow. So definitely when you talk, when you win a lot and when you show these chess players that win, I mean a boy or a girl might have a dream to become one of them. And that's what they're working for. So I think just having a great chess culture and many strong players help. You spoke about this Soviet school. Now in today's time we actually use that often to describe the style of play of a particular player. You know the Soviet chess learning or the Soviet school of chess, what exactly is that? Well, it's an attitude we can say to our chess. It's a whole culture. We focus a lot on learning the games of our predecessors, chess history. Well, there have been millions of games that have been played before us. And also we focus a lot on chess preparation. That's what I also think is a difference between this. Well, not a difference, but that's what the Soviet school is famous for. To underline these strengths of a player or strengths of his knowledge. Because for me, I mean chess, Soviet chess school is more like knowledge of chess, understanding of chess and something that, you know, cannot be compared to a modern computer world and that kind of thing. So we never really know whether it existed or not. And growing up in Russia, was the training with boys and girls working together on chess? Or was it separate? How was that? Well, we didn't have that many girls like nowadays. And, well, I was the only, I think, in my chess club. I never created a problem and actually I was feeling quite comfortable in my chess club. So, and playing mostly with the boys. So, well, even nowadays there are more boys and girls that play in parents. How, when they have a daughter, they don't really consider chess to be their number one priority. But it's been changing. And did you always know that this is what you wanted, that you were going to be a chess player from a young age? I even now wonder, what am I doing? I mean, I've never had this feeling comparing myself to other players talking. Well, throughout my career, I've had an unheard talk to discuss many things with great chess players. I've never really considered myself to have a really chess talent. I still wonder what are my strong sides. I know my weak sides better than my strong sides. And somehow it surprises me. Even nowadays, I've had such a great chess career and I still continue to play chess. So, yeah, I had these questions. I asked myself many, many times since, as I already mentioned, I had very rough years. And, well, when I'm at the point to quit or I'm at the point of, well, of doing something else, somehow chess keeps with me. Somehow something happened in my life that keeps you going. Do you feel that perhaps chess needs to be integrated, men and women need to play together to have more women in the top 100 in the world? Or should chess have separate tournaments and separate prize funds for women? Well, that's a very tricky question. I don't know. I've seen some advocates that say that we need to abolish women's titles and that women are actually capable of playing, competing with men. And we are, as we show sometimes, also our results. But the problem is that it confuses people. You either forget about women's titles and play all together, which will ruin women's chess. At least for the time being. Yeah, I don't know, for 54 hundred years it will ruin women's chess, because, I mean, well, we're definitely not ready for the step. Yes. Or we separate women and men. And we keep, I mean, like in any other sports tournament, separated. We don't compete together, only for fun or for entertainment. And I think that will be better for women's chess and for girls that grow because it will create more women's tournaments, more money, and not so much confusion. Well, I think to support women's chess you should not abolish it. Yeah, abolish it. But somehow you should support it by giving more opportunities for girls to play, showing them that they have a career ahead of them, increasing women's prizes in tournaments. And, well, that will help much more than just forgetting about women's titles. Right. Now, Alexandra, there was a lot of talk surrounding the women's World Cup happening in Iran or the world rapid and blitz happening in Saudi Arabia and Riyadh. What was your stand and your viewpoint on the entire situation? Well, first of all, I must say that a world championship is something that motivates me a lot. And it's like the number one tournament in my whole tournament year. And I cannot just skip it for, well, some kind of reasons that are not very strong enough. For example, in Iran, I was very, very concerned to go, not because of the country or the religion or anything, but because of the political situation since my daughter lives in USA. I was very afraid of getting, and I need to get a visa. And so only because of this, that was my, I was very, very concerned. But that's the only thing. About Saudi Arabia, well, Iran is also the same story, but somehow I believe that all the players must have a chance to compete. And that's written in the Statues of Fide, and I think everyone agrees with it. And so it's a very unfortunate situation in the modern world, a political situation when sometimes players are not able to come and compete because of some strange issues in between the countries. And that's the only thing that worked me. And, well, it's still worse and I cannot really find an answer what to do and how to proceed because it's not only Saudi Arabia or Iran or there are many other countries that are in worse situations between each other. And even if we talk about Baku, the Olympiad in Baku, Armenian team, I mean theoretically they were allowed to come, but they never did. So what to do and how to do in the modern world? Sometimes, yeah, sometimes it's not so clear. If we talk about women's right, this issue never really worked me because first of all, you need to really know the history and the knowledge of what you're talking about in terms of women's right. I'm not capable of discussing it. Well, it's a different country from Western and European countries. They have different religion and point of views and everything, but we should respect it and that's the problem also in the modern world. I see that sometimes countries just don't have enough respect for each other. And, well, the only problem for me which stands is that not all of the players were allowed to play. But apart from that, in Saudi Arabia it's been just flawless. It's been a perfect organization, a very good price fund which is very good for chess, especially for women's chess, because if we have one tournament with such a price fund, hopefully more tournaments will come and that's something that can change women's chess. Yeah, and also the fact that a country comes forward and puts in so much money in our game which is something that chess struggles with to get sponsors to find countries to host events. So it's probably something that players need to be open to and to at least try and make it a positive thing. In general, I think we should talk more about positive things because there's been such a story about this championship negative story and that doesn't help chess. And we should at least oppose these negative things to positive things. Also open the way to the future. I mean, if we don't try it, it's never going to change. Yes, and as I've been told, they are trying, well, at least in Saudi Arabia, they are trying to make it possible for all the players to participate, which we can wish for. Now, as you have progressed in your career and become a stronger player, is there any one particular quality or trait that you've consciously had to work on in your path to improvement? Oh, there are many. I think it's a very important thing for chess player and actually for any person who are working on some qualities to improve is to be flexible and to analyze strong side and weaknesses. Well, when you're young, you think you're just the best point. When you become older, you become aware of your weaknesses and you work not only on eliminating them, sometimes it's not possible to eliminate them. Sometimes it's the way you are, but what you learn is to avoid situations when these weaknesses might be critical. And I think that's a very, very important trait for any strong chess player. They're very flexible and they are constantly working on themselves. They're constantly analyzing and self-analyzing. Very interesting. And also, you're a mother, but you're also a professional chess player. That's something that a lot of women struggle in the chess world to draw that balance. How has that journey been for you? Well, yeah, it's almost impossible if you don't have support of your family. But here we have some girls who... Well, I'm just the mother of one. And sometimes a big issue, but when you see girls who are mother of two or three kids and they're still capable of playing and playing great and being a professional, then you understand that there is nothing you cannot do. Well, sometimes it's very simple. In chess and life, as I realized one day, it's either you want to do or you don't want to do. It's either you don't like the situation and you try to change it or you don't complain with the situation and just go ahead. Just don't complain. In the first years, it's very, very difficult for a mother, I think, mostly to leave a child. So, yeah, but again, it's your choice. If you chose this role, you're just professional. With all that you have achieved over the years and where you are, let's say, in your personal life and in your mind space, what is your aim professionally? Well, for the moment I'm in chess and I'm playing and focusing. And there are many tournaments even this year that are ahead of me and very interesting for me and that motivates me a lot because I have this problem with motivation. Sometimes I become boring and it's not so interesting for me to play a tournament and then if I'm lacking motivation, then it's a disaster. But somehow this year seems to be very promising in terms of motivators and in terms of challenging tournaments, so I'm looking really ahead of me. Well, sometimes it seems that you've done a great job to prepare and then you come and everything just doesn't go your way. So, well, you just need to relax and take it easy. It's easier said than done, but somehow understanding that chess is just a game and there are more important things in life, help. And I think that's actually a big plus when you're a mother. You need to start to care more about your children, not about chess, which is the way it should be. Yeah, I've often seen that players start performing even better after becoming a mother. Yes, because they're relaxed. You should sometimes take things easy. And lastly, Alexandra, for 2018, what is it that you're most looking forward to? Well, there are many tournaments to say. I told, there is a world championship. Actually, it seems that the last half of the year will be like a non-stop chess with very, very important tournaments. From September on, it's the Chess Olympiad. You're always excited about it because, I mean, it's a team's event. I've been a big fan of team events since my childhood. I enjoyed playing in team events very much and I've been playing for Russia, for the main Russian team since 2002. It's been quite a lot already and we've had many great results, but Chess Olympiad is something special and it seems every country is preparing for. Then a world championship, a Russian championship somewhere, the Russian Super Final should be somewhere in between the Olympiad and the world championship and hopefully world rapid and blitz, which I also love playing rapid and blitz, chess very much and I hope very much that we will finish the year with those wonderful events. That's very exciting. We wish you all the best for all of it. Thank you. Thank you very much.