FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012

The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012 is a series of six chess tournaments exclusively for women, which formed part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2013. The winner of the Grand Prix (the one with most Grand Prix points) will challenge the 2012 Women's World Chess champion.

Contents 1 Format 2 Players and qualification 3 Tie breaks 4 Event results 4.1 Grand Prix points 5 See also 6 References 7 External links

Format

18 top world women players were to be selected to compete in these tournaments. Each player agrees and will contract to participate in exactly four 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.

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 by steps of 10. In case of a tie in points the grand prix points are shared evenly by the tied players. Players only counted their best three tournament results. The player with the most grand prix points was the winner.

Players and qualification

There were several methods to qualify for the Grand Prix series.^[1][2]

• best four players of the Women's World Chess Championship 2010
  • Hou Yifan, Ruan Lufei, Zhao Xue, Koneru Humpy
• winner of previous Grand Prix
  • as Hou Yifan is already qualified, an additional rating entry was given
• highest six players per average of July 2010 and January 2011 rating not already qualified
  • Tatiana Kosintseva, Antoaneta Stefanova, Nadezhda Kosintseva, Anna Muzychuk, Kateryna Lahno, Viktorija Cmilyte
• two nominees of the FIDE president
  • Zhu Chen, Munguntuul Batkhuyag
• six host cities nominees
  • Ekaterina Kovalevskaya, Ju Wenjun, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Alisa Galliamova, Elina Danielian, Betul Cemre Yildiz

Tie breaks

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:

1. The fourth result not already in the top three performances
2. The number of actual game points scored in the four tournaments
3. The number of first place finishes
4. The number of second place finishes
5. The number of won games
6. Drawing of lots

Event results

The six tournaments are^[3]

Nr	Host city	Date	Winner	Points (Win/Loss/Draw)
1	Rostov, Russia	1–15 August 2011	Hou Yifan	8/11 (+5 -0 =6)
2	Shenzhen, China	6–20 September 2011	Hou Yifan	8/11 (+6 -1 =4)
3	Nalchik, Russia	8–23 October 2011	Zhao Xue	9.5/11 (+9 -1 =1)
4	Kazan, Russia	30 May – 13 June 2012
5	Jermuk, Armenia	16–30 July 2012
6	Istanbul, Turkey	16–30 November 2012

Grand Prix points

Player	Rostov	Shenzhen	Nalchik	Kazan	Jermuk	Istanbul	Best 3
Hou Yifan	160	160	000—		000—		320
Zhao Xue	000—	075	160	000—			235
Ju Wenjun	000—	100	130	000—			230
Anna Muzychuk	100	130	000—		000—		230
Kateryna Lahno	130	000—	080			000—	210
Tatiana Kosintseva	100	000—	055		000—		155
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	020	020	100	000—		000—	140
Viktorija Cmilyte	000—	035	100		000—		135
Nadezhda Kosintseva	080	000—	055			000—	135
Ruan Lufei	030	075	000—	000—			105
Tan Zhongyi	000—	100 !1001	000—	000—	000—	000—	100
Antoaneta Stefanova	045	000—	055		000—		100
Alisa Galliamova	065	000—1	030		000—	000—	95
Elina Danielian	045	050	000—			000—	95
Zhu Chen	000—	035	055	000—			90
Munguntuul Batkhuyag	000—	060	020	000—			80
Koneru Humpy	065	000—	000—				65
Alexandra Kosteniuk	010	000—	010			000—	20
Betul Cemre Yildiz	000—	010	000—				10

^1 At the second Grand Prix in Shenzhen. Tan Zhongyi replaced Alisa Galliamova.^[4]

See also

• FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2009–2011 , the previous cycle

References

External links

• Official Fide Site