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FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–14

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The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–14 is a series of six chess tournaments exclusively for women, which formed part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2015. The winner of the Grand Prix was decided in the last stage in Sharjah, UAE, when rating favorite and reigning world champion Hou Yifan overtook second seeded Koneru Humpy to win her third straight Grand Prix cycle. For the third time running, Koneru Humpy finished runner-up to Hou Yifan.

Contents

With the overall win Hou Yifan earned the right to play the Women's World Chess Championship 2016 in a ten-game match.

Format

Eighteen 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

Players invited bases on qualifying criteria were:

  • The four semi-finalists of the Women's World Chess Championship 2012:
    1. Anna Ushenina
    2. Antoaneta Stefanova
    3. Ju Wenjun
    4. Dronavalli Harika
  • The six highest ranked players (average of nine FIDE World Rankings lists from March 2012 to January 2013):
    1. Hou Yifan
    2. Koneru Humpy
    3. Anna Muzychuk
    4. Zhao Xue
    5. Nana Dzagnidze
    6. Kateryna Lahno
  • Six organizer nominees:
    1. Alexandra Kosteniuk (of Geneva)
    2. Elina Danielian (of Dilijan)
    3. Nafisa Muminova (of Tashkent)
    4. Olga Girya (of Khanty-Mansiysk)
    5. Bela Khotenashvili (of Tbilisi)
    6. Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (of Erdenet)
  • Two FIDE president nominees:
    1. Nadezhda Kosintseva (withdrew)
    2. Viktorija Čmilytė
  • Replacements:
    1. Tatiana Kosintseva

    Prize money and Grand Prix points

    The prize money has been increased from €40,000 to €60,000 per single Grand Prix and from €60,000 to €90,000 for the overall Grand Prix finishes.

    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. Fourth result not already taken in the top three results.
    2. Number of actual game result points scored in the four tournaments.
    3. Number of first places (in case of a tie – points given accordingly).
    4. Number of second places (in case of a tie – points given accordingly).
    5. Number of wins.
    6. Drawing of lots.

    Schedule

    The fifth stage was moved from Tiblisi to Lopota. The sixth stage was moved from Erdenet, Mongolia to Sharjah, UAE, the world's largest chess club. A move apparently due to illness in the Mongolian organising committee.

    The six tournaments were:

    Bela Khotenashvili won the first Grand Prix in Geneva and also won her third Grandmaster norm.

    Olga Girya achieved a GM norm at the tournament.

    Ju Wenjun achieved another GM norm which makes it her final GM norm.

    Batchimeg Tuvshintugs achieved a 9-game GM norm, her first one.

    Grand Prix standings

    The lowest of four results is in italics and not taken into the total result. Khotenashvili took the lead after stage one, then Koneru Humpy went into the lead by winning two stages in a row. Hou Yifan then overtook the lead of Koneru Humpy at the last stage.

    The top two places are the same as in the two previous Grand Prix cycles.

    Notes
  • 1 Nadezhda Kosintseva withdrew from the Women's Grand Prix and she has been replaced by the next highest rating reserve, Tatiana Kosintseva.
  • 2 Viktorija Cmilyte withdrew her participation in Tashkent due to illness and was replaced by Guliskhan Nakhbayeva.
  • 3 Antoaneta Stefanova replaced Elina Danielian in Khanty-Mansiysk.
  • 4 Alexandra Kosteniuk and Kateryna Lahno swapped places at fifth and sixth stage.
  • 5 Viktorija Cmilyte and Kateryna Lahno were replaced by Alina L'Ami and Zhu Chen at the sixth stage.

    • References

    FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–14 Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA