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.

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.

The top four from the Women’s World Chess Championship 2010:

1. Hou Yifan
2. Ruan Lufei
3. Koneru Humpy
4. Zhao Xue

The winner of the previous Grand Prix:
 
(As Hou Yifan was already qualified an additional sixth rating entry was given)

The six highest rated players (average of July 2010 and January 2011 lists) not already qualified:

1. Judit Polgár (declined)
2. Tatiana Kosintseva
3. Antoaneta Stefanova
4. Nadezhda Kosintseva
5. Anna Muzychuk
6. Kateryna Lahno

Two players nominated by the FIDE president:

1. Zhu Chen
2. Batkhuyag Munguntuul

One nominee from each of the six host cities:

1. Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rostov)
2. Ju Wenjun (Shenzhen)
3. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Nalchik)
4. Alisa Galliamova (Kazan)
5. Elina Danielian (Jermuk)
6. Betul Cemre Yildiz (Ankara)

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.

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

Grand Prix standings
 
Hou Yifan won the Grand Prix with a perfect score of three sole wins at the fifth Grand Prix in Jermuk. Should Yifan win the 2012 World Championship the runner-up will be her challenger in the 2013 Championship. Muzychuk, Humpy, Ju Wenjun and Zhao Xue are the only in contention of the Grand Prix runner-up.