The Women's World Chess Championship 2011 was the 34th women's world championship in history. It was organized by FIDE and was played in a match format between the champion and the FIDE Grand Prix winner as challenger. [1] On 8 August 2011 the match was awarded to Tirana, Albania. The prize fund will be $200,000.[2]
The match was scheduled to take place from 13 to 30 November 2011[3]
Hou Yifan retained her title, after gaining it in the Women's World Chess Championship 2010.[4] Her challenger was Koneru Humpy the runner-up to Hou Yifan in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2009–2011.[5][6][7]
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The match was scheduled to be played over ten games with classical time controls: 90 minutes for first 40 moves with added 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move starting from the first move.
Koneru Humpy played White in the first game.[8] Colors alternate except after game 4. Rated 2578 and 2600 respectively the women are rated second and third on FIDE's women's rating list, behind only Judit Polgar.[9]
| Rating | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Koneru Humpy | 2600 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | – | – | 2½ |
| Hou Yifan | 2578 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | – | – | 5½ |
After eight games the match was decided, by Hou drawing the eighth game and reaching 5½ points.
Should the match have been tied after ten games, tie-breaks would have kicked in. Those were:
Prior to the match, Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy played 16 games against each other at classical time control with the following statistics:[10]
| Hou Yifan | Draws | Koneru Humpy | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hou Yifan (White) – Koneru Humpy (Black) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| Koneru Humpy (White) – Hou Yifan (Black) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| Total | 8 | 6 | 2 | 16 |
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