In the spring of 2022, which was declared the year of women’s chess by FIDE (International Chess Federation), the first national women’s championship was held in Cyprus. Three months later, the Cypriot women’s team took part in the Olympics for the first time. The Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit (2020), which made the image of a girl in chess colourful and attractive, can also be thanked for this. When the decisive stage of the Women’s World Grand Prix was held in Nicosia in 2023 with the support of Freedom24, it was already taken for granted.
By Andrey Avsitidiysky
TWO-TIME CHAMPION

Christianna Markidou has been playing in the Cypriot championships since 2005 without missing a single one. More than once, the teacher from Larnaca has been the only female representative at the championships. More than once she has forced the men to capitulate. Christianna started the 2008 championship with three victories, upsetting also the future winner of the tournament.
In 2009, after the Mediterranean Championship, Markidou received an international rating (1972) close to the level of candidate master. In the first Cypriot Women’s Championship, Christianna won all her games, and at the 2022 Olympiad in Chennai she fulfilled the standard of FIDE Master. This was the best reward for her dedication to chess. In 2024, Christianna became a two-time champion of Cyprus.
THE 13-YEAR-OLD CHAMPION

Victoria Sokolova – Cyprus Women’s Chess Champion 2023 (FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess Instagram page)
In May 2023, the Instagram account fidewomen, owned by the FIDE Women’s Chess Commission, featured a post dedicated to Victoria Sokolova, who became the Cypriot champion at the age of 13. Vika scored nine points out of 10 without losing a single game. She is coached by international master Artem Sadovsky, vice-champion of Cyprus Rapid 2024. Her first coach was her mum.
‘We were, of course, both happy. But to be fair, it should be noted that in several games at the Cyprus-2023 Championship, my daughter got into difficult positions, and in the end won due to tactical blows’, Larisa Sokolova told me, confirming the thesis that girls at the board are more emotional, they take more risks and their games are more entertaining.
MASTER CANDIDATES

Aida Paunescu
‘In September 2024 in Budapest, four chess players of the Cypriot national team – Victoria and Larisa Sokolov, Aida Paunescu and Eleni Pica – became Candidate Masters. This is the best result at the Olympiad. 15-year-old Christina Bouzana took the whole blow, playing on the first board against the strongest chess players. We have one of the youngest and most promising teams’, said Maria-Anna Stefanidi, captain of the national team.
10-year-old Aida, daughter of 2010 Cyprus Vice Champion and 2011 Cyprus Chess Open winner Valentin Paunescu, was one of the youngest participants in the Olympiad. The girl scored five points out of nine and saved the team in the eighth round.
‘One of my daughter’s main chess virtues is patience. In the match against Puerto Rico, she managed to complicate the game in a lost position and achieved a draw, bringing Cyprus victory. That game lasted six hours… In August at the European Under-10 Championship in Prague, Aida had five points after seven rounds and a chance for a medal, but lost in the last round’, Valentin recalled.
NUMBER ONE IN THE CYPRIOT RATING LIST

Marina Cherkasova
FIDE Master Marina Cherkasova is the first in the Cypriot women’s ranking list. She started playing chess at the age of five. Her father, also a FIDE Master, whose rating reached 2366, became her first and lifelong coach. His experience, knowledge, and most importantly love for chess could not leave his daughter aside from this game. Marina’s childhood and youth were spent in the atmosphere of chess and chess tournaments.
‘I have always been closer to the attacking style, I love tactics. Even after a long break in tournament practice, having forgotten all the openings, thanks to tactics I managed to take second place at the Svetozar Gligoric Memorial in Belgrade in 2022, even though I left a round before the end. So attacking, combinations are my thing. I’ve always been inspired by the games of Fischer and Alekhine’.
Answering my question ‘Do you plan to play in the Cypriot championships to gain the right to play at the Olympics?’, Marina reminded me that in Cyprus (this is not the case in all countries, more often federations fight for strong players in the team) only citizens of the Republic of Cyprus can play for the national team. Since the first chess player on the rating list does not yet have Cypriot citizenship, the Olympiad remains a dream for her.
The Paphos resident opened her chess school for children from the age of three and regularly organizes children’s tournaments. Her goal is for the children living on the island to play chess, to love this game, to have the opportunity to practice and progress. The main thing, Marina is convinced, is to practice chess, to play, even if there are no results, just keep working, and then the results will come.
LEBANESE WOMEN’S CHAMPION

Knarik Mouradian
Lebanese-born Knarik Mouradian has been living in Cyprus since 2020. The international master has taken part in the national team championships three times, playing for the Larnaca team, and each time she took first place on the women’s board. Knarik is the number one ranked women’s player on the island, but as she plays under the Lebanese flag, she has no chance of making it to the Olympics as part of the Cypriot team
‘I am most proud of my games played from 2005 to 2008. I raised my rating to 2225 and won the Arab Women’s Championship four times. I am especially proud of my games in the 2005 Lebanon Open Championship. I became the men’s champion of my country and was part of the men’s team at the 2006 Turin Olympics’.
Knarik says she likes to play aggressively, she loves and knows how to attack, and her best skills are tactics and calculation. Her idols are Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer. She has not been playing in tournaments very often lately, as she devotes most of her time to the online chess academy she founded in Cyprus, where she teaches chess to students of all ages from all over the world.
VICTORIES OVER MEN
‘When I was younger, oftentimes after a man lost to me, they made excuses that they were sick. So I had never beaten a healthy male player’. Remembering this ironic phrase by the eighth world champion Susan Polgar, I asked my interviewees the question ‘What feelings do victories over men bring?’.
Marina Cherkasova: ‘The same as over women. The main thing for me is to win, and I don’t care what gender my opponent is. As Akiba Rubinstein said: “I play against pieces”. I’d rather like to win against an opponent with a higher rating. It’s men who find it psychologically harder to play against women. It doesn’t usually work the other way round’.
Knarik Mouradian: ‘Victories against men do not bring me any special feelings, as I do not believe that there should be any difference between men and women in chess. If we raise girls with this mentality and increase the number of females playing chess and participating in chess tournaments, we will see more women winning open section titles’.
THE FUTURE IS BRIGHT
‘Five years ago, Cyprus had only one female chess player participating in international tournaments. Today, our girls and young women represent Cyprus at European and world championships in all age categories. The women’s team is only two years old and the number of young chess players is growing day by day. As a FIDE Master and the 2023 Greek Champion, I believe that the future of women’s chess in Cyprus is bright, summarised Maria-Anna Stefanidi.
To be continued.
The author of the article is the owner of the news site evropakipr.com, Cyprus Chess Champion (2010) as part of the Limassol team, bronze medallist of Cyprus Chess Open 2024.
Click here to change your cookie preferences