Women's World Ch. opening ceremony

Women's World Chess Championship – Opening in Lviv

The Women’s World Chess Championship Match 2016 between the current World Champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine and Challenger Hou Yifan of China (former World Champion 2010-2012, 2013-2015) takes place in Lviv, Ukraine, on March 1-18, 2016. The first game is scheduled to start at 3 pm local time on 2nd of March 2016. You can watch the games live in our broadcast window at the bottom of this page.

First on the schedule was the inspection of the playing venue in Potocki Palace, where the
players checked the chairs, table and light in the playing hall (watch it in the video above)

After that the particpants proceeded to the Lviv Opera House for the opening ceremony

Challenger Hou Yifan and Women's World Champion Mariya Muzychuk on the stage

The drawing of colours: Yfan got black and Muzychuk white in the first game

This was followed by a dramatic live performance of the Zhyttya Ballet ...

... with some chess themed passages ...

... and some most certainly not.

Packed full to the rafters: the Lviv Opera House during the opening ceremony

The audience was also treated to some virtuoso violin play ...

... the three of the four tenors of the Bel’canto Quartet (you can listen to them here) ...

... and Khrystyna Soloviy, a young singer, member of Ukrainian version of “Voice” TV-show,
whom you can listen to in this enchanting folk song video.

Lovin' it – Mariya Muzychuk in the audience ...

... and her Chinese challenger Hou Yifan

Schedule

All games start at 3 p.m. local time, which is an hour ahead of European time, two ahead of Britain, and seven ahead of New York. You can find the starting time at your location here.

Women's World Chess Championship 2016 live broadcast

Watch it live on Playchess!

When the games are running, clicking on the above link will take you to our live broadcast. It is free and open to all – as a Premium Account member you have access to the Live Book, Chat, chess engine analysis – all in your browser, on a notebook, tablet or even your smartphone. And the Let's Check function will show you what the most powerful computers in the world think of the current position, as each move is being played.

In the live broadcast below, on the side of each board is an evaluation meter, showing you which side is better. The small "x" button on the top right of each board will remove it from the broadcast. If you remove two games you will have four larger boards. Removing four will give you two even larger boards, and removing five will give you just one very large board. Refresh the page (Ctrl-R) to return to the six most popular boards.

You can also click the "+" and "–" icons at the bottom right of the broadcast window to increase and decrease the number of boards. There are other functions: you can download PGNs of the running games and even start an engine by clicking the robot button (third from left). Note that you can view moves and statistics in the opening (with the Live Book switched on) and even analyse on the boards while the games are being broadcast, by moving pieces and using the engine – best in multiple line mode. Is there a better way to follow the games?

It may interest you to know that you can use the same broadcast service above on your blog or web site.
It is simply a matter of copying and pasting a line or two of code. Try it out: instructions are here.

Photos by Vitaliy Hrabar

Links Official tournament site Download all games in PGN The games will be broadcast live on the official web site and on the server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.