The Women's World Championship begins

3/18/2015 – It would be surprising not to see any surprises at the Women's World Championship. After all, it is a knock-out tournament. But the first round brought hardly any upsets, the favorites won or drew, hoping for better opportunities in the second game. With one exception: Yuan Yuanling used a lethal counter to win against Marya Muzychuk.

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Tournament conditions

The Women's World Chess Championship takes place from March 17 – April 7 in Sochi, Russia. The knock-out tournament is attended by 64 players, including the former World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Anna Ushenina (Ukraine), and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria), the three-time Russian champion Valentina Gunina, the World Vice-Champion Humpy Koneru (India), and other leading grandmasters. Unfortunately, the reigning champion Hou Yifan was unable to come due to personal reasons, but she will still have an opportunity to challenge the new champion in a match, as the winner of the FIDE Grand Prix.

The first five rounds consist of mini-matches of two games with 90 minutes per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with bonus 30 seconds per each move. The final match consists of four games.

If the match score is tied, its winner is determined on tiebreak: two rapid games of 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If the score remains equal, the players proceed to another two games with a slightly faster time control – 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If these games do not determine the winner as well, then there are two blitz games: 5 minutes + 3 seconds per move. Finally, if the score is still even, there is an Armageddon game: White has five minutes, Black has four minutes, and a three-second increment per move after the move 61.

Replica of a Lunochod lunar rover at the "Galactica"

Security check

The Women's World Championship started with a certain amount of delay - it was originally scheduled for autumn 2014 - twelve draws and 20 wins. In the majority of games the favorites prevailed, but there was one big surprise: Yuan Yuanling won against Mariya Muzychuk.

During the Chess Olympiad in Tromso 2014 Daniel King had the opportunity for a short and interesting interview with the Canadian player:

A quick chat with Yuan Yuanling (Tromso)

Top seed Humpy Koneru

Ju Wenjun is one of the favorites to win the title

Tatev Abrahamyan from the US

Former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk

Antoaneta Stefanova - she also is a former Women's World Champion

Hoang Than Trang

Sophie Milliet and Irina Krush

Tatiana Kosintseva

Anna Ushenina, winner of the last knock-out World Championship

The first move

Informal: Andrey Filatov

Results of the first round

Koneru, Humpy	IND	1-0	Moaataz, Ayah	EGY
Wafa, Shrook	EGY	0-1	Ju, Wenjun	CHN
Muzychuk, Anna	UKR	1-0	Mezioud, Amina	ALG
Shamima, Akter Liza	BAN	0-1	Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU
Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	1-0	Berezina, Irina	AUS
Baginskaite, Camilla	USA	0-1	Gunina, Valentina	RUS
Zhao, Xue	CHN	1-0	Zuriel, Marisa	ARG
Yuan, Yuanling	CAN	1-0	Muzychuk, Mariya	UKR
Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL	½-½	Nguyen, Thi Than An	VIE
Ozturk, Kubra	TUR	0-1	Khotenashvili, Bela	GEO
Cramling, Pia	SWE	1-0	Hejazipour, Mitra	IRI
Abrahamyan, Tatev	USA	0-1	Harika, Dronavalli	IND
Danielian, Elina	ARM	½-½	Marrero Lopez, Yaniet	CUB
Nakhbayeva, Guliskhan	KAZ	½-½	Tan, Zhongyi	CHN
Ushenina, Anna	UKR	1-0	Zhang, Xiaowen	CHN
Lujan, Carolina	ARG	1-0	Galliamova, Alisa	RUS
Kosintseva, Tatiana	RUS	½-½	Gomes, Mary Ann	IND
Wang, Jue	CHN	0-1	Sebag, Marie	FRA
Javakhishvili, Lela	GEO	1-0	Guramishvili, Sopiko	GEO
Arabidze, Meri	GEO	½-½	Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER
Krush, Irina	USA	1-0	Milliet, Sophie	FRA
Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan	SCO	1-0	Hoang, Thanh Trang	HUN
Huang, Qian	CHN	½-½	Kovanova, Baira	RUS
Gaponenko, Inna	UKR	½-½	Zhukova, Natalia	UKR
Socko, Monika	POL	½-½	Daulyte, Deimante	LTU
Sukandar, Irine Kharisma	INA	½-½	Melia, Salome	GEO
Girya, Olga	RUS	1-0	Atalik, Ekaterina	TUR
Kashlinskaya, Alina	RUS	½-½	Shen, Yang	CHN
Khurtsidze, Nino	GEO	0-1	Kovalevskaya, Ekaterina	RUS
Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	½-½	Goryachkina, Aleksandra	RUS
Pogonina, Natalija	RUS	½-½	Guo, Qi	CHN
Cori T., Deysi	PER	0-1	Lei, Tingjie	CHN

Impressions of the press conferences and the opening ceremony

Press conference with Anastasya Karlovich, Humpy Koneru, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Andrey Filatov and Alexandra Kosteniuk

Humpy Koneru, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Andrey Filatov

Press officer Anastasya Karlovich, Humpy Koneru

The players at the opening ceremony

The dignitaries

Official speech by Andrey Filatov

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov

Music

Schedule

Date	Event	Time
March, 16	Arrival of the participants Opening Ceremony Players’ meeting – after the official part of the Opening Ceremony	19.30 (preliminary)
Round 1 - 64 players
March, 17	Game 1	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 18	Game 2	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 19	Tie breaks	3:00 p.m. local time
Round 2 - 32 players
March, 20	Game 1	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 21	Game 2	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 22	Tie breaks	3:00 p.m. local time
Round 3 - 16 players
March, 23	Game 1	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 24	Game 2	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 25	Tie breaks	3:00 p.m. local time
Round 4 - 8 players
March, 26	Game 1	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 27	Game 2	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 28	Tie breaks	3:00 p.m. local time
Round 5 - 4 players
March, 29	Game 1	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 30	Game 2	3:00 p.m. local time
March, 31	Tie breaks	3:00 p.m. local time
Rest day - April, 1
Round 6 - 2 players
April, 2	Game 1	3:00 p.m. local time
April, 3	Game 2	3:00 p.m. local time
April, 4	Game 3	3:00 p.m. local time
April, 5	Game 4	3:00 p.m. local time
April, 6	Tie breaks	3:00 p.m. local time
April, 7	Closing Ceremony*
*Closing Ceremony can be shifted to April, 6 in case of the absence of tie breaks

Photos: Etery Kublashvili, Vladimir Barsky

Participants...

Pairings tree...

Links

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 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.