Humpy Koneru wins Women's Grand Prix Skolkovo

by ChessBase
9/22/2119 – The 2019-2020 FIDE Women's Grand Prix, part of the Women's World Championship cycle, takes place in Skolkovo, a business centre in Moscow also known as the Russian Silicon Valley. Twelve players are competing in the first of four single round-robin events that will grant two spots at the next Women's Candidates Tournament. In the final round, Humpy Koneru earned the final half point needed to clinch victory ahead of Ju Wenjun. | Photo: Official site

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Round 11

The tournament runs from the 11th to the 22nd of September, with the rest day scheduled after round six, on the 17th. The prize fund amounts to EUR 80,000, with EUR 15,000 reserved for the winner.

Players receive 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus 30 seconds per move starting from move one.

Live games and commentary (next round at 14:00 CEST)

 

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A reformed cycle

by Andre Schulz

One of the first measures taken by Arkady Dvorkovich when he was named President of FIDE was to reorganize the Women's World Championship cycle, leaving behind the yearly circuits with alternating formats and returning to a match-only format. Much like the open cycle, the challenger for the crown will be decided on a candidates tournament. The first of such events was won by Aleksandra Goryachkina, who will later face current world champion Ju Wenjun.

While the participants of this year's Candidates Tournament were chosen by virtue of reaching the semi-finals of the last championship or by rating, the next eight-player qualifier to the World Championship match will include qualified players from the Women's World Cup and the Women's Grand Prix — a process similar to the one used in the open cycle.

The first of four Grand Prix events is being played at the Skolkovo business area, located in the Mozhayzky District, a science and technology hub in Moscow. Twelve of the sixteen participants of the GP are in the Russian capital. Both world champion Ju Wenjun and challenger to the crown Aleksandra Goryachkina are playing — incidentally, they are also the top two seeds. 

Elisabeth Paehtz, Antoaneta Stefanova

Elisabeth Paehtz and Antoaneta Stefanova during the opening ceremony | Photo: Official site

Jan Dunning, President and CEO of Magnit, one of the main sponsors of the event, RCF President Andrey Filatov, and FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich gave speeches at the opening ceremony. Dunning declared: "Planning, decision-making, and strategy. Chess looks a lot like business to me".

Grand Prix participants

The next three events of the GP will take place in Monaco, Lausanne and Sardinia. Each player will compete in three out of four tournaments.

Women's Grand Prix 2019

Links

<< Candidates - Nepo and Tan sole leaders, Naka beats Pragg
Topics: Aleksandra Goryachkina, Ju Wenjun, Women's Grand Prix 2019 Skolkovo
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See also

Astana GP: Exciting round leaves Lagno and Goryachkina in the shared lead

9/27/2022 – An exciting eighth round at the Women’s Grand Prix in Astana, with five out of six games ending decisively, left Aleksandra Goryachkina and Kateryna Lagno (pictured) sharing the lead on 6/8 points. Notably, Goryachkina defeated former co-leader Zhu Jiner with the white pieces. Zhu now stands in sole third place, a full point behind the leaders. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
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See also

Astana GP: Goryachkina and Zhu share the lead

9/21/2022 – Top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina (pictured) and Chinese youngster Zhu Jiner are sharing the lead on 3/4 points at the first leg of the Women’s Grand Prix in Astana. Zhu, aged 19, has so far defeated Dinara Wagner and Polina Shuvalova after playing three out of her four first games with the black pieces. Bibisara Assaubayeva and Kateryna Lagno stand a half point behind the co-leaders. | Photos: FIDE / Anna Shtourman

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ulyssesganesh ulyssesganesh 9/22/2019 06:27
brilliant come back by Humpy!
malfa malfa 9/20/2019 09:31
@fed666,
so you mean that players like, for example, Christiansen or Ghaem-Maghani, who like no less than a dozen of other World Cup participants are lower rated than, say, Ju or Koneru, belong there more than these two? Peculiar opinion, yours...
fede666 fede666 9/19/2019 07:25
With such low ratings do you see them competing in the World cup? Fide is not discouraging anybody, just women chess players don't belong there
Raymond Labelle Raymond Labelle 9/18/2019 08:42
The Koneru vs Kashlinskaya game from the Grand Prix is a very instructive and amusing miniature full of tactics problems - would have you found the moves the player did?

A recension here:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yIHdmAGX0pw
fgkdjlkag fgkdjlkag 9/14/2019 03:40
The world cup is not an open event. Maybe the world cup was scheduled far enough in advance that FIDE could see that there was no overlap, and then schedule this event? That way any player would not have had to make a choice between them.
BKnight2003 BKnight2003 9/14/2019 03:09
World Cup is not an open (meaning "for everyone") event. Qualification is needed.
Peter B Peter B 9/12/2019 01:57
Why does this clash with the World Cup? FIDE should not be discouraging women from entering open events.
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