Jermuk: Chinese players Ju Wenjun and Ruan Lufei lead

From July 16 to 29, 2012 the southern Armenian hamlet of Jermuk is playing host to the Fifth FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of a series of elite events organised by FIDE and Global Chess. There will be six tournaments over two years in various countries around the world. The winner of each tournament takes home 6,500 Euros, the total prize fund is 40,000 Euros. The overall winner will get a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series. Starting time of the games is 15:00h (check your local time here). A full shedule with all results is given at the bottom of the page. Monday, July 23 is a free day.

Round two

An astonishing round in which every games was decided – we are trying to think when it was the last time we saw a tournament with more than four players where a round was unblemished with a ½-½ result.

Annotated games of round two for replay

Hou Yifan and Lilit Mkrtchian analyse in the press conference after the round

The games are displayed on large demo boards for the public in the park

Round three

This round saw two draws – and four decisive games, emphasizing the fighting and sometimes error-prone quality of women's chess. In any case fans are glad for it.

Annotated games of round three for replay

The setup in Jermuk, at the start of roung three

Before the start of a critical game that threw the tournament leader back a notch

After her draw today against top seed Hou Yifan Chinese WGM Ju Wenjun is in the lead

The Georgian IM is not in form, as her three losses in the first three rounds prove

What went wrong? Armenian IM Lilit Mkrtchian and Chinese WGM Ruan Lufei ...

Lilit has so far only managed a single draw in the first round...

Kateryna Lahno, who is married to GM Robert Fontaine and now lives in Paris

Youthful fans in Jermuk follow the games on – an Android tablet!

The youngest can only look in wonder – with Sinatra-blue eyes

Standings after three rounds

Note that so far only five games (=27.8% of all games) were drawn. Black won the same number of games, while White won eight, which adds up to 44.4% of all the games in three rounds.

Remaining schedule

Schedule and 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 a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 11 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.