Festive opening at the Women's World Championship in Nalchik

The Women's World Championship 2008 is taking place from August 28th to September 18th in Nalchik, in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. 64 players were eligible to play in the knock-out event, which has a prize fund of US $450,000. Due to the tensions in the region the Georgian players and a few others decided not to participate.

After the pre-tournament turmoil, in which the Georgian and other players protested and the FIDE President appealed to them and then to the Georgian president ("Do not mix politics and sport") we had to wait until the start of the first round to see who would turn up and who wouldn't. All the Georgians – Chiburdanidze, Gvetadze, Javakhishvili, Khukhashvili, Khurtsidze, Lomineishvili – were absent, as were a few others: Tea Bosboom Lanchava, Karen Zapata, Marie Sebag, Irina Krush and Ekaterina Korbut. They all lost their first game by default.

In the following table we can see that the top seeds generally won their games. The first upset is to be found on board 13, where 13th seed Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine lost to 52nd seed Katherine Rohonyan of the US. The next: 16th seed Elisabeth Paehtz, former Girl's Junior World Champion from Germany, lost to 49th seed Ilaha Kadimova of Azerbaijan. The defaulted players are shown in red.

Picture Gallery

Start of the game WGM Elisabeth Paehtz, Germany, 2481, vs WGM Ilaha Kadimova, Azerbaijan, 2324, with FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and Kabardino-Balkaria President Arsen Kanokov looking on. Elisabeth Paehtz lost with the black pieces.

The two Presidents, Ilyumzhinov and Kanokov, chat with Chief Arbiter Zsuzsa Veröci

Upset: WGM Natalia Zhukova, UKR, 2489 lost with white to WGM Katherine Rohonyan, USA, 2321

The playing venue, with the games of the very first round under way

A huge banner across the acade of the Musical Theatre in the center of Nalchik

The entry hall of Hotel “Sindica”, where the games of the Championship are being played

The giant poster in the entrance hall says it all

The Opening Ceremony

A giant float used to commemorate the opening of the Women's World Championship

The mimes in thematic costumes

A stage performance at the opening ceremony

Standard bearers for the nations that are represented at the tournament in Nalchik

France is represented although the only French player, Marie Sebag, is absent

The Russian Chess Federation President and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov holds the greeting speech to the participants at the opening ceremony

A traditional dance routine from the Kabardino-Balkaria region...

... with the famous one-legged Kabardino dancers (just kidding – they are in mid-step)

Girls in chess hats, and other remarkable dance routines

The next generation is ready to take over

You cannot start them off early enough

Video reports by FIDE

You will get a great impression of the exuberance of the opening ceremony from this video – don't miss it!

Schedule

Links Official FIDE tournament site All games played so far All ChessBase reports on Nalchik 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 ChessBase Light, which gives you immediate access to the server. You can also use the program to read, replay and analyse the PGN games.