Monika Soćko (née Bobrowska; born 24 March 1978) is a Polish
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...
player who holds the
FIDE titles
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
of
Grandmaster (GM) and
Woman Grandmaster
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating an ...
(WGM). She won the
Polish women's chess championship eight times (in 1995, 2004, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017).
Career
In 2007, Soćko won an international women's tournament in
Baku,
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Western Asia. It is a part of th ...
ahead of former Women's World Champion
Antoaneta Stefanova
Antoaneta Stefanova ( bg, Антоанета Стефанова; born 19 April 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and Women's World Champion from 2004 to 2006. She has represented Bulgaria in the Chess Olympiad in 2000 and the Women's Ches ...
. In 2008, she was awarded the title of
Grandmaster (GM) by
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
, becoming the first and, to date, only Polish female player to achieve this. The following year, she won the Arctic Chess Challenge in
Tromsø
Tromsø (, , ; se, Romsa ; fkv, Tromssa; sv, Tromsö) is a municipality in Troms og Finnmark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Tromsø.
Tromsø lies in Northern Norway. The municipality is the 21s ...
, Norway in spite of being only ranked as number 16 before the tournament, while her top-ranked
husband
A husband is a male in a marital relationship, who may also be referred to as a spouse. The rights and obligations of a husband regarding his spouse and others, and his status in the community and in law, vary between societies and cultures ...
,
Bartosz Soćko, finished in 13th place. In March 2010, she won the bronze medal at the Women's
European Individual Chess Championship
The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis.
Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's), ...
edging out
Yelena Dembo
Yelena Dembo (born December 8, 1983) is a Greek chess player, who holds the titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster. She is also a chess teacher and author.
Family background
Dembo was born on December 8, 1983, in Penza, Russia. ...
and
Marie Sebag on tie-breaks.
In 2014 Soćko won the
Erfurt
Erfurt () is the capital and largest city in the Central German state of Thuringia. It is located in the wide valley of the Gera river (progression: ), in the southern part of the Thuringian Basin, north of the Thuringian Forest. It sits ...
Woman Grandmaster
round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & C. Me ...
. In 2017 she won the 8th Sharjah Cup for Women 2017 in
Sharjah
Sharjah (; ar, ٱلشَّارقَة ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi, forming part of the Dubai-Sharjah-Ajman metropolitan area.
Sharjah is the capital ...
,
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia ( The Middle East). It is located at ...
edging out Ukrainian player Svetlana Moskalets on tiebreak score, after both players scored 7½/9 points.
In August 2022 in
Prague
Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...
Soćko won gold medal in
European Women's Individual Chess Championship.
As a member of the Polish team, she won the gold medal at the Women's
European Team Chess Championship
The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
in 2005, silver in 2007 and 2011, and bronze in 2013 and in the
2002 Women's Chess Olympiad.
Rules appeal in 2008
In the
2008 Women's World Championship she was involved in a game which resulted in a dispute about the interpretation of the
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
rules of chess. In an
armageddon
According to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, Armageddon (, from grc, Ἁρμαγεδών ''Harmagedōn'', Late Latin: , from Hebrew: ''Har Məgīddō'') is the prophesied location of a gathering of armies ...
game she needed a win to advance to the next round. The position got down to each player having only a
king
King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen, which title is also given to the consort of a king.
*In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contemporary indigenous peoples, the ...
and a
knight
A knight is a person granted an honorary title of knighthood by a head of state (including the Pope) or representative for service to the monarch, the church or the country, especially in a military capacity. Knighthood finds origins in the G ...
in which a
checkmate
Checkmate (often shortened to mate) is any game position in chess and other chess-like games in which a player's king is in check (threatened with ) and there is no possible escape. Checkmating the opponent wins the game.
In chess, the king is ...
position is possible but cannot be forced. Her opponent,
Sabina-Francesca Foisor
Sabina-Francesca Foişor (born August 30, 1989) is a Romanian American chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008 and 2017. Foisor won the US women's championship in ...
, ran out of time under the
time control
A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game cloc ...
. Since checkmate cannot be forced with this
material
Material is a substance or mixture of substances that constitutes an object. Materials can be pure or impure, living or non-living matter. Materials can be classified on the basis of their physical and chemical properties, or on their geolo ...
, the
arbiter initially ruled that the game was a
draw
Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn may refer to:
Common uses
* Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them
* Drawing (manufacturing), a process where metal, glass, or plastic or anythin ...
, therefore her opponent advanced to the next round. Soćko appealed, pointing out that the rules state that what matters is not whether or not checkmate can be ''forced'', but rather it is ''possible'' (see
Rules of chess#Timing). The arbiter compared the possible checkmate position to a
helpmate
A helpmate is a type of chess problem in which both sides cooperate in order to achieve the goal of checkmating Black. In a helpmate in ''n'' moves, Black moves first, then White, each side moving ''n'' times, to culminate in White's ''nth'' move ...
, in which the defender has to cooperate in order to get to the checkmate. Soćko won the appeal and advanced to the next round.
References
External links
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*
1978 births
Living people
Polish female chess players
Polish chess players
Chess grandmasters
Female chess grandmasters
Sportspeople from Warsaw
{{Poland-chess-bio-stub