The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–12 was 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, Hou Yifan, will challenge the 2012 Women's World Chess champion.
Contents
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 is the winner.
Players and qualification
There were several ways to qualify for the Grand Prix series.
Polgár, the highest rated woman in the world, has never competed for the women's title and declined to participate in this cycle as well, so her spot was given to the next player on the average rating list, Viktorija Cmilyte.
At the second tournament in Shenzhen, Tan Zhongyi replaced Alisa Galliamova.
Prize money and Grand Prix points
The prize fund was €40,000 per Grand Prix event and €60,000 for the overall Grand Prix placement.
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:
- The fourth result not already in the top three performances
- The number of actual game points scored in the four tournaments
- The number of first-place finishes
- The number of second-place finishes
- The number of won games
- Drawing of lots
Results
The six tournaments were:
Grand Prix standings
Hou Yifan won the Grand Prix with a perfect score culminating with her third sole victory at the fifth Grand Prix in Jermuk and thus qualified her to face Anna Ushenina in the Women's World Chess Championship 2013. A score in italics denotes a score not being into account for the total as there are three better results for the player.
Notes: Tan Zhongyi replaced Alisa Galliamova in Shenzhen. Nino Khurtsidze and Lilit Mkrtchian replaced Alexandra Kosteniuk and Zhu Chen in Jermuk, who had withdrawn their participation.