Jovanka Houska

Infobox chess player
playername =Jovanka Houska


caption=Jovanka Houska, Iraklion 2007
birthname =Jovanka Houska
country =ENG
datebirth =birth date and age|1980|6|10
placebirth =London, England
datedeath =
placedeath =
title =International Master, WGM
worldchampion =
womensworldchampion =
rating =2399 (October 2008)
peakrating =2405 (July 2008)

Jovanka Houska (born June 10, 1980, London) is an English chess player with the titles International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM).

Formative years

Born in south London, her family name stems from her grandfather who was part Czech. Her first name is typically Slavic, but was chosen only to complement the family name. Chess is a popular sport in the Houska family, and she owes much of her progress to the sibling rivalry that developed with elder brother Miroslav, himself an International Master of chess, though currently inactive. She now lives on the capital's north side and has a degree in Law.

One of England's most active professionals, she first represented her country at the World Youth Championship for Girls (under 10) in Timişoara 1988, finishing fifth after a disastrous start and despite being years younger than most of her opponents. She competed in the same event at Aguadilla in 1989 and then, for a third time at Fond du Lac in 1990, where she won the bronze medal. There were many more successes over the next few years and as a consequence, she was awarded the Woman International Master (WIM) title in 1998, after securing all three norms in just over a month. Her first WGM norm was achieved at the 1999 British Championship when she was still a teenager.

European success

Then in 2000, her accumulated efforts were further rewarded by winning the European Junior Championship for Girls (under 20), held in Aviles. It was a milestone victory, as it also provided a final qualification norm for the WGM title. The following year saw her take the Women's Commonwealth Championship, held in London in conjunction with the Mind Sports Olympiad. She defeated GM Dibyendu Barua in the process and gained a first IM norm.

Team events

Despite her time-consuming academic studies, the next few years were notable for Houska's unstinting contribution to the England Women's team at various major competitions around the world. She participated at each of the Chess Olympiads between 1998 and 2006 and aside from her first appearance as a reserve, has played consistently on high boards, scoring in excess of 60% on each occasion. From 1999 onwards, she has also been an ever-present at the European Team Championships. The team's most notable performance in this event, occurred at Leon in 2001, where a third place finish produced a team bronze medal.

An active league chess player, she represents "SK Hofheim" in the German Bundesliga, "Deauville" in France and "Hilsmark Kingfisher" in the 4NCL.

Further progress

Following yet more successful norm-seeking, she became the third British woman to be awarded the IM title in 2005. There were 'highest placed Woman' prizes at the Hastings International Chess Congress 2006/7 and at Gibraltar 2007. She also came close to winning the first MonRoi Women's Grand Prix, finally finishing second equal behind Pia Cramling. Her task was much more difficult at the fifth Howard Staunton Memorial Tournament, held at Simpsons-in-the-Strand, where she faced some of the world's top grandmasters. Predictably, she finished in last place.

At Liverpool in 2008, she became British and English Women's Champion for the first time, finishing a full point ahead of closest rival Susan Lalic and a half point ahead of grandmasters Flear and Haslinger.

In addition to the many tournament reports she has written for CHESS magazine, Houska completed her first chess opening book in 2007 and is commissioned to write another on the Scandinavian (Starting Out Series) for an anticipated December 2008 publication.

As of July 2008, her Elo rating was 2405, making her England's second ranked female player (behind Harriet Hunt) and number sixty-five in the world among women.

Bibliography

* "Play The Caro-Kann" - Jovanka Houska (Everyman Chess, 2007)

References

* [http://www.jovanka.co.uk/mambo/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1 Jovanka Houska website]
* [http://www.gibraltarchesscongress.com/gib2008/publicity_eng/competitors.html Short bio by John Saunders]
* [http://www.olimpbase.org Olimpbase - Olympiads and other Team event information]
* [http://www.howardstaunton.com/hsmt2007/index.shtml 5th Staunton Memorial website]

External links

* [http://www.chessgames.com/player/jovanka_houska.html Houska's games at Chessgames.com]
*fide|id=405094|name=Jovanka Houska