The 6th Women's FIDE Grand Prix in Doha has started

The 6th Women's FIDE Grand Prix in Doha

This event is taking place in capital city of the state of Qatar from February 20nd to March 6th, 2011. Yesterday FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov arrived in Qatar and delivered a greeting speech to all the participants and guests at the Opening Ceremony of the event. FIDE Honorary Vice President Mr. Khalifa Mohammed Al-Hitmi also took part in the Opening Ceremony. Ilyumzhinov took the opportunity to congratulate all women on the forthcoming International Women's Day.

The participants of the event include four former Women World Champions: Xu Yuhua, Maia Chiburdanidze, Antoaneta Stefanova and Zhu Chen. A fifth one, Nona Gaprindashvili (in the middle of the picture above), is Head of the Appeal Committee. The winner of the tournament will receive 6,500 Euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 Euros and the overall winner of the series will win a further 15,000 Euros at the end of the series.

Games start at 3:00 p.m. local time (rounds 1-10, round 11 at 12 noon). The rest day is February 27th (after round 6). The technical meeting Chief Arbiter Dr. Michael Shadarevian drew the attention of the participants to the “no-draw offer” rule and "zero tolerance" rule which require chess players to be seated at their boards when the games are scheduled to start.

Doha (view on a larger map) is the capital city of the state of Qatar, located on the Persian Gulf.

This modern city has a population of around one million, with over 80% of the Qatari
population residing in the city or its surrounding suburbs [photo: Wiki]

The Opening Ceremony of the of Women’s Grand Prix chess tournament was held next to the sea in the Sharq Village and Spa in Doha on February, 21st, 2011.

Players and officials. In the back row you may recognize Sebag, Zhu Chen, Chiburdanidze,
Stefanova, Humpy, Dzagnidze, Al-Hitmi, Ilyumzhinov, Mkrtchian, Xu Yuhua, Munguntuul, Fierro

The opening was attended by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov (above right), FIDE Honorary Vice President Mr. Khalifa Mohammed Al-Hitmi (left) and other officials (Ilyumzhinov's personal assistant Berik Balgabaev and FIDE CEO Geoffrey D. Borg)

A speech on the stage of venue at the the opening ceremony

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov greeted all players and guests of the event and used an opportunity to congratulate all Women on the forthcoming International Women's Day.

Mr. Khalifa Mohammed Al-Hitmi delivered a greeting speech to all participants and guests.

Stark contrast: one European, six locals at the opening ceremony

Results of round one

FIDE President Ilyumzhinov start the game between top seeds Humpy and Dzagnidze

Koneru,Humpy (2607) - Dzagnidze,Nana (2550) [D45]
6th Women GP Doha QAT (1), 22.02.2011
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 d5 4.d4 c6 5.e3 Nbd7 6.Qc2 b6 7.Bd3 Bb7 8.0-0 Be7 9.b3 0-0 10.Bb2 h6 11.Rad1 Qc7 12.Qe2 Rad8 13.Ne5 dxc4 14.bxc4 Nxe5 15.dxe5 Nd7 16.f4 Nc5 17.Bb1 Rxd1 18.Nxd1 Rd8 19.Nf2 Nd7 20.Ne4 c5 21.Ng3 Nf8 22.Bc3 a6 23.Nh5 g6 24.Nf6+ Bxf6 25.exf6 Qc6 26.e4 b5 27.Rf3 bxc4 28.Bc2 Rd4 29.Qe3 Qd6 30.f5 g5 31.h4 exf5

Humpy has been applying considerable pressure on the second seed, and had good winning chances. Now she throws it all away in one move: 32.hxg5? 32.Rxf5 was required. 32...Bxe4 33.gxh6 Bxc2 34.Qg5+ Ng6 35.h7+ Kh8. Maybe the Indian GM miscalculated a mating attack?! The black king is safe, Dzagnidze is simply a lot of material up. 36.Bxd4 Qxd4+ 37.Rf2 Be4 38.Qh6 Qxf6 39.Qe3 Qa1+ 40.Kh2 Qd4 41.Qxd4+ 0-1.

The kibitzing President at the start of Stefanova vs Xu Yuhua

Stefanova,Antoaneta (2546) - Xu,Yuhua (2484) [E00]
6th Women GP Doha QAT (1), 22.02.2011
1.d4 e6 2.c4 Nf6 3.g3 d5 4.Nf3 Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Bg2 0-0 7.0-0 c6 8.Qc2 b6 9.Bf4 Nbd7 10.Rd1 Ba6 11.b3 Rc8 12.Nc3 h6 13.e4 dxc4 14.Qe2 Bb4 15.Rac1 b5 16.bxc4 bxc4 17.a3 Bxc3 18.Rxc3 Nb6 19.a4 Qe7 20.Qc2 Rfd8 21.a5 Nbd7 22.Bf1 Qb4 23.Nd2 Bb5 24.Rb1 Qxa5 25.Nxc4 Bxc4 26.Rxc4 Nb6 27.Bd2 Qh5 28.Rc5 Qg6 29.f3 Rxd4 30.Be3 Rd7 31.Rxc6 Rcd8 32.Rc5 Nh7 33.Bb5 Rd6 34.Rc7 Ng5 35.Be2 e5 36.Rxa7 Nd5 37.Bxg5 Qxg5 38.Qc5 Nf4 39.Bc4 Rd1+ 40.Rxd1 Rxd1+ 41.Bf1 Nh3+ 42.Kg2 Rc1 43.Qe7 Rc2+

Former Women's World Champion Xu Yuhua has a very promising attack, which is expedited by a blunder by her opponent, former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova: 44.Kxh3? Qh5+ 45.Qh4 Qxf3 46.Qd8+ Kh7 47.Bd3 Rf2 48.Ra8 Qg2+ 49.Kg4 Rf4+ and mate in one (50.Kh5 g6#) to follow. 0-1.

Bottom seed IM Martha Fierro Baquero of Ecuador scored a surprise win against...

Mongolian IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul defeated former Women's World Champion
Maia Chiburdanidze with the black pieces

All photos by Maria Bolshakova and Anastasiya Karlovich

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN All games are being broadcast on the official site and on Playchess. To read, replay and analyse the PGN games we adivse you to download the free PGN reader ChessBase Light. This program also gives you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.