Women's world championship match

[Kerry Liles]

Was disappointed (but not surprised) to see Ushinina self destruct in the first game. Seems she played the opening well and had a fine position but spent a lot of time on an 'ordinary' position and later gave the game away in self-inflicted time pressure. I would have picked Hou Yifan as a favourite in general, but this is too much of a handicap to give the challenger... I wish Ushinina would smile every now and then... One wonders if she arrived in sufficient time to get used to the country and the time change and diet change?

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Women's world championship match

Saw some pictures of the match on Chessbase web site.
It seems all the spectators can fit in the same cab (rickshaw?) - wow,
I'll bet they would have had more on site spectators in Toronto (and that is going out on a limb!)

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Women's world championship match

Yifan Hou must surely be making Andras Andorjan (of 'Black is OK' fame) beam. Through six rounds she's drawn her 3 White games and won all 3 of her Black games!

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Women's world championship match

Finally winning with White today, Yifan Hou completed the rout, 5.5 - 1.5, to regain the World Championship she never should have lost (a 64-player knockout format to determine a World Champion is beyond absurd). She's now a perfect 3/3 in WC match competition, having twice beaten previous challenger Humpy Koneru, each time rather handily.

Of the four bona fide 2600+ FIDE female players, I'm rather hoping Yifan Hou's next challenger will be either Anna Muzychuk or - it ain't going to happen unless some promoter ponies up some huge bucks - Judit Polgar. It would be interesting to see what the betting odds would be in a Hou - Polgar match. If Polgar was the strong favourite, I'd likely put my money on Hou (:

[Ken MacDonald]

Re: Women's world championship match

Finally winning with White today, Yifan Hou completed the rout, 5.5 - 1.5, to regain the World Championship she never should have lost (a 64-player knockout format to determine a World Champion is beyond absurd). She's now a perfect 3/3 in WC match competition, having twice beaten previous challenger Humpy Koneru, each time rather handily.

Of the four bona fide 2600+ FIDE female players, I'm rather hoping Yifan Hou's next challenger will be either Anna Muzychuk or - it ain't going to happen unless some promoter ponies up some huge bucks - Judit Polgar. It would be interesting to see what the betting odds would be in a Hou - Polgar match. If Polgar was the strong favourite, I'd likely put my money on Hou (:

Does she play in OPEN events? If so, how has she done?

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Women's world championship match

Does she play in OPEN events? If so, how has she done?

I guess you weren't paying attention to the Gibraltar tournament last year. From Wikipedia:

Hou started 2012 in dramatic style by taking equal first place at Tradewise alongside Nigel Short (+6 =4; TPR 2838) at the Gibraltar Chess (2012) scoring 8/10 (+7 -1 =2; TPR 2872). She came second on tiebreak when she lost the 2 game blitz playoff against Short by 1.5–0.5. She scored 5/7 against the 7 GMs she played rated 2700 or higher. This included 4 wins against Zoltan Almasi (2717), Judit Polgar (2710), Le Quang Liem (2714) and Alexei Shirov (2710), 2 draws against Michael Adams (2724) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (2747), whilst her only loss came against Krishnan Sasikiran (2700) in a close endgame of Q(with a pawn up) versus R+R with black,[125] which was similar to the endgame of Peter Leko vs Vladimir Kramnik (2007).[126] Her performance rating was 2872, the highest of any player in the event.

[Hans Jung]

Re: Women's world championship match

This match Anna Ushenina - Hou Yifan will go down in history as the only match ever where the challenger had a perfect score as Black against a World Champion. Excellent chess trivia. Wait 20 years and mention it at a chess gettogether as a question and everyone will be astounded.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Women's world championship match

This match Anna Ushenina - Hou Yifan will go down in history as the only match ever where the challenger had a perfect score as Black against a World Champion. Excellent chess trivia. Wait 20 years and mention it at a chess gettogether as a question and everyone will be astounded.

I thought I had you for a split second, Hans, since Vera Menchik went 45/45 in 4 consecutive Women World Chess Championships (1931/33/35/37), meaning she, ipso facto, had a perfect score with Black. But since she was the World Champion, she wasn't defeating a World Champion (:

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Women's world championship match

Hou Yifan seems to be the most significant female chess player since Judith Polgar. The match was one sided, showing how ridiculous is to name somebody who won one tournament "World Champion". Anna is still a good player but the concept World Cup = World Champion is wrong.

[Bob Armstrong]

2nd Class FIDE Women's World Championship Cycle

I agree with Laurentiu.

The fact that the victory was so lopsided, and that the current Women’s World Champion could not even win a game, again raises the whole issue of how Anna became Women’s World Champion in the first place – by a knockout tournament, with short matches and fast tie-breaks, which many have said turns the Women’s World Championship into a lottery. The Women’s Championship should be always determined by match play against a Challenger, just like the World Championship. Women in chess have been given by FIDE a second-class system. Yifan will next have to defend her title in a knockout, where she enters Rd. 1 just like all the other players. This is abominable.

But it is interesting that there are almost no objections from the elite women players themselves. I have heard it argued that they will not bite the FIDE hand that feeds them, because they feel they are lucky to be getting what they do, given that almost exclusively, their ratings are substantially lower than the top players in the world.

Does this explain the deafening silence on this issue at the top echelons of women's chess? (And yes, I know, I'm a male and so shouldn't be analyzing the women chess players "problem", as I see it).

Bob A

[Bob Armstrong]

Classical Women's World Championship Title - Civil Disobedience?

I agree with Laurentiu.

The fact that the victory was so lopsided, and that the current Women’s World Champion could not even win a game, again raises the whole issue of how Anna became Women’s World Champion in the first place – by a knockout tournament, with short matches and fast tie-breaks, which many have said turns the Women’s World Championship into a lottery. The Women’s Championship should be always determined by match play against a Challenger, just like the World Championship. Women in chess have been given by FIDE a second-class system. Yifan will next have to defend her title in a knockout, where she enters Rd. 1 just like all the other players. This is abominable.

But it is interesting that there are almost no objections from the elite women players themselves. I have heard it argued that they will not bite the FIDE hand that feeds them, because they feel they are lucky to be getting what they do, given that almost exclusively, their ratings are substantially lower than the top players in the world.

Does this explain the deafening silence on this issue at the top echelons of women's chess? (And yes, I know, I'm a male and so shouldn't be analyzing the women chess players "problem", as I see it).

Bob A

What do you think would happen if Yifan decided to play hard-ball with FIDE, and pulled a "Kasparov" (Kasparov, as World Champion, broke from FIDE in 1993)? What if she notified FIDE she was not willing to put her Women's World Championship on the line in a tournament, the next upcoming Women's World Chess Championship Knockout Tournament. However, she would recognize the winner of that tournament as a legitimate Challenger, in a subsequent match with her. And if FIDE did not agree, she was taking the "Classical Women's World Champion" title outside of FIDE, and she would arrange her own Women's World Championship Challenger. Would this be good for Yifan? Would it be good for world women's chess? Would it be good for FIDE?

Bob A

[Tom O'Donnell]

Re: Classical Women's World Championship Title - Civil Disobedience?

What do you think would happen if Yifan decided to play hard-ball with FIDE, and pulled a "Kasparov" (Kasparov, as World Champion, broke from FIDE in 1993)? What if she notified FIDE she was not willing to put her Women's World Championship on the line in a tournament, the next upcoming Women's World Chess Championship Knockout Tournament. However, she would recognize the winner of that tournament as a legitimate Challenger, in a subsequent match with her. And if FIDE did not agree, she was taking the "Classical Women's World Champion" title outside of FIDE, and she would arrange her own Women's World Championship Challenger. Would this be good for Yifan? Would it be good for world women's chess? Would it be good for FIDE?

Bob A

If she has any aspirations on joining Judit in the 2700 club, she should just walk away and not bother defending her title.

[Laurentiu Grigorescu]

Re: Classical Women's World Championship Title - Civil Disobedience?

Hou Yifan is Hou Yifan. Kasparov was a unique character in a unique time (politically speaking). Today a Fischer or a Kasparov will have no impact on FIDE with their demands.
Nonetheless Hou Yifan is a strong and sweet player, and it seems that she has fun playing...almost effortless chess. She has time to grow into a much dangerous fighter, as Judith Polgar was in the 90s. TBD.