Women's World Championship About To Take Off (But Hou Yifan Doesn't Play)

The Women's World Championship will be opened tomorrow in Sochi, Russia. In this 64-player knockout reigning world champion GM Hou Yifan is not defending her title.

The Women's World Championship will run 17 March-7 April. The reason for the Chinese's absence is that she had made other arrangements for this period: she will be playing in the Hawaii Chess Festival.

Originally the Championship was supposed to be held October last year, but it was canceled by FIDE just two-and-a-half weeks before it was supposed to start. When the new dates were announced, Hou Yifan had already accepted an invitation for Hawaii.

This means that in a few weeks from now, Hou Yifan won't be holding the title of women's world champion anymore. Ironically, this happens right after she took over the number one spot from GM Judit Polgar, and having a rating more than a hundred points highter than #3 GM Humpy Koneru.

However, if we maybe believe the FIDE Calendar she can win back her title in half a year from now. As the winner of the Grand Prix, Hou Yifan is allowed to challenge the 2015 world champion in a match which is supposed to take place 13-31 October 2015.

Although the tournament in Sochi is devalued before it even started, it will still be interesting to follow. Even GM Magnus Carlsen might keep an eye on it: yesterday in Reykjavik he said that many women games are theoretically relevant because they prepare well with strong coaches. 

The favorites in Sochi are the Vice-World Champion GM Humpy Koneru (India), ex-world champions GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), GM Anna Ushenina (Ukraine) and Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) and the three-time Russian champion GM Valentina Gunina.

The first five rounds consist of two games (one per day), The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes to finish the game, with 30 seconds increment. The final match consists of four games.

If the match score is tied, a playoff will be played on the third day of the round. A playoff consists of two rapid games (25 minutes + 10 seconds per move), if necessary two more games (10 minutes + 10 seconds per move), if necessary two blitz games (5 minutes + 3 seconds per move) and if necessary one Armageddon game.

The total prize fund of the Championship is US $450,000. Every player gets $3750, those who make it to round two get $5500, for round three it is $8000, round four $12,000, round five (semifinals) $20,000, the silver medalist $30,000, and the winner $60,000.

The opening ceremony will be held Monday, 16 March an the Grand Hotel Polyana in Krasnaya Polyana Sochi.

2015 Women's World Championship | Participants

The pairings for the first round are 1 vs 64, 2 vs 63, 3 vs 62 et cetera. You can find the full pairings tree here on the official website.