2007 MonRoi International Women’s Grand-Prix Summary
The first International Women’s Grad-Prix made history. The champion is Pia Cramling of Sweden, one of 14 female grandmasters, and the third rated women player in the world.
Grand-Prix Finale Standings
1. GM Pia Cramling (2533) of Sweden
2. WGM Lela Javakhishvili (2460) of Georgia
3. WGM Jovanka Houska (2401) of England
4-5. WGM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2418) of Georgia
4-5. WGM Iweta Rajlich (2406) of Poland
6-7. WGM Irina Krush (2479) of USA
6-7. WGM Cristina Adela Foisor (2372) of Romania
8. Myriam Roy (1975) of Canada , FQE Selection, supporting talent
Qualifying Tournaments
GibTelecom, Gibraltar, January 23 – February 1
Cannes Open, France, February 18-25
Zagreb Open, Croatia, March 17-25
Euro 2007 Individual, Dresden, Germany, April 2-15
Liechtenstein Open, Liechtenstein, May 11-19
EU Individual, Arvier, Italy, June 15-24
World Open, Philadelphia USA , June 28 – July 4
Statistics
Top rated women players from over 30 country participated in the Grand-Prix.
Grand-Prix Finale was followed on monroi.com by over 111,000 unique spectators from 120 countries.
Media coverage of the Grand-Prix: CTV News in Montreal, Radio Canada, TV WCN in Sweden, TV Vojvodina, chess news webpages such as Chessbase, Susan Polgar blog, USCF webpage by Jennifer Shahade, ICC homepage, TWIC, Robin Lindsay chess blog, among other chess news sites, as well as local magazines containing the chess columns.
It is estimated that about 5 million chess fans learned about the Women’s Grand-Prix.
Grand-Prix Host Countries: Gibraltar, Cannes , Croatia , Germany , Liechtenstein , Italy , USA and Canada .
Matches were live at http://www.monroi.com/ and are available for replay.
Tournament web-pages featured live games, results, photos, news and sponsor logos on each page.
On-line spectators were following live games, and stayed connected for hours to the webpage. They also browsed through photo and result sections.
In July 2007 alone MonRoi’s webpage had over 35 million hits and 30 million file downloads, some of which were used for publishing in chess magazines.
Grand-Prix qualifiers had on average 40,000 unique Internet visitors.
Qualifier prize funds ranged between $15,000 to $300,000, which accounts for over $1M invested in those tournaments.
In addition to advertising, in-kind contributions in chess tournaments are high. Some events had as many as 80 volunteers, such as the Euro 2007.
Qualifier sponsors were: telecommunication firms (like GibTelecom), banks, accounting companies (Deloitte), festivals (Game Festival in Cannes ), private donors (for example S.H. Alois Philipp Maria, Hereditary Prince of Liechtenstein ), electronic component firms (ZMD), hotel venues, chess federations & clubs.
Overall, about 5,000 chess players from over 70 countries attended the qualifiers.
Grand-Prix Finale was sponsored by: MonRoi, chess organizations (ECU, FQE, Chess’N Math), festival (Just For Laughs), companies (Galazzo Jewelers, Spa Eastman, Loto Quebec ).
Some of the finalists went to as many as 4 out of 7 qualifiers to improve their rating performance.
To learn about the Grand-Prix Sponsors click on SPONSORS
Spectators who followed Women’s Grand-Prix Finale come from:
Americas- USA, Canada, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Cuba, Costa Rica, Aruba, Guatemala, Honduras, Puerto Rico, Trinidad & Tobago, Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela.
Western Europe- Germany , Netherlands , France , Switzerland , Belgium , Austria , Luxemburg , Monaco .
Northern Europe- UK , Sweden , Norway , Denmark , Finland , Iceland , Ireland , Estonia , Latvia , Lithuania .
Southern Europe- Italy , Croatia , Spain , Portugal , Serbia , Slovenia , BiH , Macedonia , Andorra , Malta , Greece .
Eastern Europe- Poland , Hungary , Romania , Bulgaria , Slovakia , Czech Republic , Belarus , Ukraine , Moldova .
Transcontinental Eurasia- Russian Federation (77 % of territory in Asia), Turkey (97 % in Asia), Georgia (97 % in Asia), Azerbaijan (92 % in Asia ).
Asia- India, Singapore, Israel, Philippines, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Kazakhstan, Korea, Malaysia, Mongolia, Mynamar, Nepal, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Thaliand, UAE, Uzbekistan, Vietnam.
Africa- South Africa , Ivory Coast , Egypt , Ghana , Morocco , Namibia , Seychelles , Uganda , Zambia , Zimbabwe .
Oceania- Australia , New Zealand , Fiji , Samoa , New Caledonia , French Polynesia .
Here is the full info: http://www.monroi.com/GP/Facts.html
Congrats Brana!
This is great. This will definitely continue to grow as people learn about it more.
It also shows how well chess can be promoted. This will become a benchmark for others to measure against.
Nice job. Onward and Upward to bigger and better each year.