The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2009–2011 was a series of six chess tournaments exclusively for women, which formed part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2011. The winner of the Grand Prix (the one with most Grand Prix points) was to challenge Hou Yifan - the 2010 Women's World Chess champion in the third quarter of 2011. As Hou Yifan also won the Grand Prix, Koneru Humpy as the runner-up qualified for the 2011 championship.[1][2][3]
The final tournament was scheduled to take place in Santiago de Chile starting at October 23, 2010. However, the host was replaced and the final tournament was then played in Doha, Qatar.[4]
Contents |
18 top world women players were to be selected to compete in these tournaments. Each player agrees and will contract to participate in exactly 4 of these tournaments. Players must rank their preference of tournaments once the final list of host cities is announced and the dates are allocated to each host city.[5]
Each tournament is a 12-player, single round-robin tournament. In each round players scored 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand prix points were then allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament: 160 grand prix points for first place, 130 for second place, 110 for third place, and then 90 down to 10 points for places four to twelve (decreasing by 10 points for each place). (Grand Prix points were split between players on equal tournament points).
Players only counted their best three tournament results. The player with the most grand prix points was the winner.
With the objective of determining a clear, single winner to play in the Challenger Match and in the case that two or more players have equal cumulative points at the top, the following criteria (in descending order) will be utilized to decide the overall winner:
The six tournaments were
The Grand Prix was won by Hou Yifan, but as she already was qualified for the Women's World Chess Championship 2011 as the title holder, Koneru Humpy qualified as her challenger. Humpy's tied first place in Doha was just enough to overtake Nana Dzagnidze in the overall standings.
| Player | Istanbul | Nanjing | Nalchik | Jermuk | Ulaanbaatar | Doha | Played | Best 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hou Yifan | 120 | – | 130 | (70) | 160 | – | 4 | 410 |
| Koneru Humpy | 160 | – | (70) | – | 93⅓ | 145 | 4 | 398⅓ |
| Nana Dzagnidze | – | 130 | 100 | 160 | – | (80) | 4 | 390 |
| Tatiana Kosintseva | – | – | 160 | 130 | 93⅓ | – | 3 | 383⅓ |
| Elina Danielian | 120 | – | (10) | 93⅓ | – | 145 | 4 | 358⅓ |
| Zhao Xue | 90 | 110 | (40) | – | 93⅓ | – | 4 | 293⅓ |
| Xu Yuhua | – | 160 | – | (30) | 60 | 55 | 4 | 275 |
| Marie Sebag | 80 | 80 | – | – | (30) | 110 | 4 | 270 |
| Antoaneta Stefanova | 45 | – | – | 93⅓ | 130 | (20) | 4 | 268⅓ |
| Pia Cramling | 65 | – | 100 | (55) | – | 80 | 4 | 245 |
| Lilit Mkrtchian | – | 80 | 40 | 93⅓ | – | (35) | 4 | 213⅓ |
| Maia Chiburdanidze | 45 | – | – | (40) | 70 | 80 | 4 | 195 |
| Batkhuyag Munguntuul | – | 60 | 70 | – | (20) | 55 | 4 | 175 |
| Shen Yang | (25) | 60 | – | 55 | 45 | – | 4 | 160 |
| Zhu Chen | – | 30 | 70 | – | 45 | (10) | 4 | 145 |
| Martha Fierro | 65 | 20 | – | (10) | – | 35 | 4 | 120 |
| Kovanova Baira | – | 40 | 40 | 20 | – | – | 3 | 100 |
| Ju Wenjun | – | 80 | – | – | – | – | 1 | 80 |
| Betul Cemre Yildiz | 10 | 10 | 20 | – | (10) | – | 4 | 40 |
| Zeinab Mamedyarova | 25 | – | – | – | – | – | 1 | 25 |
Players shaded in red cannot make the first place from their current position and Hou Yifan is the current champion
Tatiana Kosintseva was replaced by Ju Wenjun once in NanJing,[6] and Zeinab Mamedyarova was replaced by Kovanova Baira three times.