2010 Women's World Championship - Heads start to roll

The Women's World Chess Championship is being held at Hatay, Turkey, from December 2nd to 25th. It is a 64-player knockout tournament, with two-game mini-matches qualifying a player to the next round, until the final and 6th round, which is a four-game match to determine the champion. In the event of a draw after the two tournament time-control games, there will be a rapid game tie-breaker, followed by a possible blitz playoff, and finally an armageddon blitz game. The time control is 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, and a 30-second increment per move as of the first move. The games are held daily at 3 PM local time (2 PM Paris / 8 AM New York / 5 AM Los Angeles). The full schedule is available here.

Note that the organizers pulled out all the stops to provide coverage of the highest quality, including daily live video coverage during the rounds.

Indian IM Dronavalli Harika (2525) observing the game between Zhao Xue and
legendary Maia Chiburdanidze (World Champion 1978-1991).

Round two

World Champion Kosteniuk is still on course for her title defense

With the end of the second round, the initial 64 players are down to 16, and already a few names have dropped out, whi le others still pursue their ambitions. World Champion Kosteniuk was taken to the rapid games where she won with few troubles, while the top-rated Koneru (2600) and Yifan (2591) were not seriously challenged by their opponents. After Kosintseva’s complete self-destruction in the first game against Dembo, she was faced with the challenge of a must-win in the second, but it was not to be, and she is the top rated player to stumble at this stage.

Bulgarian Stefanova was one of several top-rated players to fall out in the second round

She was not alone though, as Georgian GM Dzagnidze (2551) fell prey to Skripchenko, who beat her in the tiebreaker 2-0, and a similar fate was reserved for Bulgarian Stefanova (2548), who lost her second game to Chinese Qian (2402), and then both the rapid games, ending her journey.

Turkish Yildiz was unable to repeat her surprise result against Mariya Muzychuk

Both Muzychuk sisters, Anna (2530) and Mariya (2462), made it to the next stage, with Mariya making short work of the surprise round one hero, Yildiz (2225). Indian junior, Harika (2525) went through with a 2-0 victory over Russian WGM Shadrina (2384), while fans of German IM Elisabeth Paehtz were chagrined to see her unable to get past Lithuanian GM Cmilyte, after losing the second game, and then the tiebreaker.

Alas for her supporters, Elisabeth Paehtz was elminated by Cmilyte in the tiebreaker

Kovanova was also unable to repeat her first round success and lost to Wenjun

Seeing Marie Sebag all bundled up, it is rather striking how some players look as if
they were facing deep winter.

While enjoying a a warm beverage, French GM Marie Sebag, who lost to American
IM Anna Zatonskih, chats with Europe Echecs reporter, GM Robert Fontaine.

GM Robert Fontaine is seen enjoying a moment with his wife GM Kateryna Lahno

Lahno was one of the few top-rated players to successfully play the rapid games
tiebreaker. Then again, she is the reigning World Women's Blitz champion.

Pictures by Turkish Federation

 
Europe Echecs is providing daily video reports

Round two results

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse PGN games. New and enhanced: CB Light 2009!

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