2010 Women's World Chess Championship - Preview

The 2010 Women's World Chess Championship will be held from December 2nd, 2010 (Arrival), to December 25th, 2010 (Departure) in Hatay, Turkey. Time control: 40 moves in 90 minutes followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one. Schedule: the games start at 3 PM local time (2 PM Paris - 8 AM NY time - 5 AM Pacific)

Women's World Chess Championship 2010

The 2010 Women's World Chess Championship will be held from December 2nd, 2010 (Arrival), to December 25th, 2010 (Departure) in Hatay, Turkey.

There are 64 qualifiers for the event:

• The Women's World Champion,
• the runner-up and semi-finalists of the previous Women's World Championship (4 players),
• the World Junior Girl Champions U-20 of 2008 & 2009 (2 players),
• the five best rated players from the average of the FIDE rating lists of July 2008 and January 2009 (5 players),
• fifty-one qualifiers from the Women's Continental Championships and Zones (51 players).
• and two nominees by the FIDE President (2 players).

Players

Tournament format

The time control shall be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one.

There shall be five (5) rounds of matches, comprising two (2) games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The 6th and final round shall be played over four (4) games and the winner will be declared Women's World Champion.

Round 1: there will be 64 players
Round 2: there will be 32 players
Round 3: there will be 16 players
Round 4: there will be 8 players
Round 5: there will be 4 players
Round 6: there will be 2 players

Complete general pairings (Excel file)

Round one pairings

Complete round one pairings (Excel file)

The world’s strongest 64 women players will come together here in historical city of  Turkey. The first five of those eminent women players are Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia, who is the reigning World Champion, Humpy Koneru from India, Chinese star Hou Yifan, Russian GM Tatiana Kosintseva and Georgian Grandmaster Nana Dzagnidze.

23 years old Indian GM Humpy Koneru won the 2009 Is Bankasi Women GP in Istanbul

Chinese star Hou Yifan, 2008 Ataturk Woman Masters Champion

The History of the Women's World Chess Championships

In 1996 Zsuzsa Polgar beat Xie Jun at Jaen to become the last World Champion to win the title in a classic match played on the same terms that had been in effect since 1953.

The next Candidates Tournament in Groningen 1997, was organized concurrent with the first of the FIDE World Championship Knockout tournaments. Alisa Galliamova and Xie Jun finished 1st and 2nd, seeding them into the final match.The final match in the Women's Championship was scheduled to be played in Shenyang. After Galliamova refused to play the entire match in China, the win was awarded by default to Xie Jun. The title match would be Polgar - Xie Jun.

By the time FIDE announced the date and venue for the title match, Polgar had given birth to her first child. She considered that the time to recover from childbirth and to prepare for the new match was insufficient. She requested that the match be postponed, FIDE refused, and negotiations broke down. After the contract deadline passed, FIDE declared that the title match would be played between Xie Jun and Alisa Galliamova. The forfeited Candidates match was to be resurrected as a title match! The 1999 match, with a venue split between Kazan and Shenyang, was won by Xie Jun.

A year later, at New Delhi 2000, Xie Jun defended her title by winning the first Women's Championship played with the knockout format. She beat her compatriot Qin Kanying in the final match of the six rounds event. The Chinese dominance was reconfirmed when Zhu Chen beat Alexandra Kosteniuk in the final match of the Moscow 2001 knockout event.

On July 7, 2004, Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria became the 10th World Champion at the Championship held in Elista, The president of FIDE, the President of the republic of Kalmykia, Kirsan Ilymzhinov, set a diamond crown on her head. Then on March 2006, Xu Yuhua became the next Champion in Ekaterinburg.

The next championship which was organized in Nalchik in 2008 was won by Alexandra Kosteniuk, the current reigning champion, and in the closing ceremony the President of Kabardino-Balkaria, Arcen Kanokov, and FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov awarded the winners of the Championship. In third place came Pia Cramling (Sweden) and Humpy Koneru (India), and in second, the youngest-ever finalist, Hou Yifan (China) was warmly applauded by the audience. The longest applause was naturally reserved for the new Champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia. All the prizes were presented and the Champion was crowned with a very beautiful and luxurious crown, hand-made in Kabardino-Balkaria.

Here are some pictures of the 2010 venue, Hatay, Turkey:

Upland of Samandağ

Mozaic Museum

Delicious Hatay Cuisine

Map of Hatay

Photos by Turkish Chess Federation

Sponsors

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