Women's World Chess Championship

[Bob Armstrong]

As I understand it, the current Women's Champion, Hou Yifan of China, is to play in 2012 a title match against the winner of the 2011-2 Women's Grand Prix. But since Yifan played in it and won it, the runner-up is the 2012 Challenger, Humpy Koneru of India.

The winner of that match, must then defend their title in 2013. The current 64-player tournament, sometime called the Women's World Championship ( wrongly in my view ) is for the purpose of identifying the 2013 Challenger. Again, Yifan and Humpy are both playing. So if either of them wins the 2012 match, and the current tournament, then the 2013 Challenger will be the runner-up in the current tournament. So really, the current women's tournament is really a " Women's World Cup ", just like the World Cup in the World Championship is a step in the process to determining the World Championship Challenger.

What is the format for 2014 and beyond? How do the Women's Grand Prix and the Women's World Cup fit into the Championship cycle then?

Is there a 2013-4 Women's Grand Prix, to determine the Challenger for a 2014 match?

And will the Women's World Cup in 2014 determine the Challenger for a 2015 match?

This would mean that the Women's World Championship is held every year, whereas the World Championship in future is intended to be a match every 2nd year, to my knowledge.

Bob A

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Women's World Chess Championship

The chances of Yifan Hou playing someone other than Humpy Koneru just got considerably better. Humpy moments ago went down with White to Natalia Zhukova and now must win with Black tomorrow or she's eliminated.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Re : Women's World Chess Championship

Hi Jack:

I've gotten a bit confused now.

This 2012 Women's knock-out - Is it a real Women's World Championship tournament, such that if someone wins other than Hou Yifan, they become the new Women's World Champion?

And is it then, that that New World Champion will then play Hou Yifan in the Oct. 2013 Women's World Championship Match ( Hou being there as the winner of the 2011-2 Women's Grand Prix )?

Any help would be appreciated.

Bob

[Fred McKim]

Re: Re : Women's World Chess Championship

Hi Jack:

I've gotten a bit confused now.

This 2012 Women's knock-out - Is it a real Women's World Championship tournament, such that if someone wins other than Hou Yifan, they become the new Women's World Champion?

And is it then, that that New World Champion will then play Hou Yifan in the Oct. 2013 Women's World Championship Match ( Hou being there as the winner of the 2011-2 Women's Grand Prix )?

Any help would be appreciated.

Bob

Yes. You now have it correct. If Hou Yifan wins the present tournament, the challenger will be Humpy (as Grand Prix Runner-Up)

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Women's World Chess Championship

Wikipedia indicates that the winner of this event is indeed the 2012 Women's World Champion, Bob. I must say this strikes me as grossly unfair to Yifan Hou. She's of course the current World Champion, beating Humpy Koneru in both 2010 and 2011. Yifan Hou is next year's challenger for the 2013 Championship, which again reverts to single match play.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women's...mpionship_2012

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Re: Re : Women's World Chess Championship

Yes. You now have it correct. If Hou Yifan wins the present tournament, the challenger will be Humpy (as Grand Prix Runner-Up)

Thus, if Humpy doesn't win with Black tomorrow, she'll definitely be rooting for Yifan Hou.

Personally, I'd like to see Anna Muzychuk win this event so we see someone other than Humpy face Yifan. And Anna was recently the #2 ranked woman in the world (Polgar of course being #1).

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Women's World Chess Championship

To quantify just how unfair this is to Yifan Hou, the chances of the best player winning the event is surprisingly small. Ignoring the R1 match, an obvious total mismatch, if Yifan's chances of winning subsequent rounds are 80%, 75%, 70%, 65%, and 60%, then the probability of winning all 5 of those events is the product of same, .1638, or roughly 1 in 6.

[Ken Craft]

Re: Women's World Chess Championship

FIDE is rarely fair.

[Hal Bond]

Re: Women's World Chess Championship

Today we have 6 tiebreak matches, including one with Canadian ties.

Irina Krush managed to win yesterday against Pia Cramling, levelling the score at one victory each. Both women have played in Canada several times.

The biggest surprise today will be the presence of Hou Yifan, who lost with White yesterday against Socko.

[Bob Armstrong]

Re: Women's World Chess Championship

The Knockout lottery system comes up a big winner!!

ELIMINATED:

Hou Yifan ( China ), sitting women's World Champion and # 3 woman in the world,
Humpy Koneru ( India ), # 2 woman in the world, and
Anna Muzychuk ( Slovenia ), # 4 woman in the world

( Judit Polgar( Hungary ), # 1 woman in the world, did not play - she probaly would have been thrown out too!! )

Way to go FIDE! Great system you've given the women! There are just 3 of the top 8 left.

Do you think the women's system is " broken "??

Bob A

[Alex Ferreira]

Re: Women's World Chess Championship

Hi Bob,

The same tournament exists for men, and at some point (not that long ago) had the same prestige / impact on the world's crown. More top women are / were actually in this tournament. How many of the world's top 10 men play in the other knock-out tournament? Two? Three? Is this not entertaining? Aren't the players getting a great month's wage? We all know FIDE is backward.

How can / who are we to say women's chess is broken?
There is interest. There is clearly a ton of sponsorship money. There are countries willing to host. Players interested in participating. There are even multiple chesstalk (the dirty tabloid of any chess media coverage) threads written by MEN.

There's an interesting match-up tomorrow if I read the pairings correctly. The Kosintseva sisters. Cruel. So there, one more of your title candidates will be eliminated in a couple of days.

Alex F.

[Egidijus Zeromskis]

Re: Women's World Chess Championship

There's an interesting match-up tomorrow if I read the pairings correctly. The Kosintseva sisters. Cruel.

We should see Armageddon here with Black going further :D

[Andrei Botez]

New Women's World Chess Champion

The Knockout lottery system comes up a big winner!!

ELIMINATED:

Hou Yifan ( China ), sitting women's World Champion and # 3 woman in the world,

Conform FIDE:

Monika Socko (Poland) continued her sensational winning streak by beating the World Champion Hou Yifan in both rapid games. Thus Hou Yifan lost her title and, according to FIDE regulations, will face the winner of this championship in a title match during the third quarter of 2013.

I find it funny that even that Monika defeated Hou and take the WC title away from her...someone else might get the title.

[Jack Maguire]

Re : Re: Women's World Chess Championship

Hi Bob,

There's an interesting match-up tomorrow if I read the pairings correctly. The Kosintseva sisters. Cruel. So there, one more of your title candidates will be eliminated in a couple of days.

Alex F.

They've met on 11 previous occasions according to:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ezsea...a+-+Kosintseva

Each and every game was a draw and no game lasted more than 15 moves. The last 7 were the same Queen sac, 13/14 move, Gligoric Variation of a Ruy Lopez.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Re : Re: Women's World Chess Championship

They've met on 11 previous occasions according to:

http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ezsea...a+-+Kosintseva

Each and every game was a draw and no game lasted more than 15 moves. The last 7 were the same Queen sac, 13/14 move, Gligoric Variation of a Ruy Lopez.

I suppose if the format is NOT a knockout, then quick draws like that would mean more time at the bar or the pool. In a knockout it is a different matter altogether. Time (for them) to decide which of the two sisters has a better chance and move on I guess...