The Women's World Chess Championship of 2012

Thanks for these updates Trysts. I gather that since Irina Krush missed getting the draw today she will have to bring her " A-Game " tomorrow ( go big or go home ? ).

Thank you, cabadenwurt! Yes, her's and the other two matches tomorrow I expect to be filled with nerves.

This thread is a nice piece of journalism, Sharon. The knockout format seems overly complicated to me. Do you feel the players would be better served by a simpler format?

Thank you, electricpawn! I like the format myself, but I don't think the favorites of the tournament did. It's turned out to be like the open candidate's tournament(minus the absurd amount of draws), where the favorites are gone and winner is Gelfand

There was a thread on here, calling it a joke, so there has already been a thread on it.

Hi woodshover! Do you remember the name of the thread?

It was by Monster something. Can't remember his whole name, but it was "Is the women's world championship a joke?" He was saying he asked that because #64 in the world was only rated about 1800.

I think the Monster person is quite wrong. They don't just pick the highest rated players. Here is how the choices were made:

 From World Women’s Championships 2010-2011:
01. Hou, Yifan (CHN) – World Champion 
02. Koneru, Humpy (IND) – World Champion Finalist 2011 
03. Zhao Xue (CHN) – World Championship Semi finals 2010

b) World Girl Junior Champions 2010-2011:
04. Muzychuk, Anna (SLO) 
05. Cori T Deysi (PER)

c) Rating List average 7/2011 & 1/2012:
06. Gunina, Valentina (RUS) 
07. Galliamova, Alisa (RUS) 
08. Zhu, Chen (QAT) 
09. Kosteniuk, Alexandra (RUS) 
10. Skripchenko, Almira (FRA) 
11. Ushenina, Anna (UKR)

d) 28 players from European Women’s Championships 2010 & 2011
12. Cramling, Pia (SWE) (2010)
13. Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU) 
14. Socko Monika (POL) 
15. Sebag, Marie (FRA) 
16. Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS) 
17. Zhukova Natalia (UKR) 
18. Dembo Elena (GRE) 
19. Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL) 
20. Kosintseva Nadezhda (RUS) 
21. Muzychuk Mariya (UKR) 
22. Rajlich Iweta (POL) 
23. Ziaziulkina Nastassia (BLR) 
24. Kovalevskaya Ekaterina (RUS) 
25. Khurtsidze Nino (GEO) 
26. Danielian, Elina (ARM) (2011) 
27. Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS) 
28. Khotenashvili, Bela (GEO) 
29. Lahno, Kateryna (UKR) 
30. Javakhishvili, Lela (GEO)
31. Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan (SCO) 
32. Foisor, Cristina-Adela (ROU) 
33. Bodnaruk Anastasia (RUS) 
34. Pogonina Natalija (RUS) 
35. Ovod Evgenija (RUS) 
36. Romanko Marina (RUS) 
37. Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN) 
38. Mkrtchian Lilit (ARM) 
39. Khukhashvili Sopiko (GEO)

e) 8 players from Americas
40. Arribas Robaina, Maritza (CUB) (Continental)
41. Zatonskih, Anna (USA) (Zonal 2.1)
42. Abrahamyan, Tatev (USA) (Zonal 2.1)
43. Krush, Irina (USA) (Zonal 2.1)
44. Khoudgarian, Natalia (CAN) (Zonal 2.2)
45. Castrillon Gomez, Melissa (COL) (Zonal 2.3)
46. Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid (PER) (Zonal 2.4)
47. Lujan, Carolina (ARG) (Zonal 2.5)

f) 12 players from Asia/Oceania
48. Pourkashiyan, Atousa (IRI) (Continental 2010)
49. Harika, Dronavalli (IND) (Continental 2011)
50. Ghader Pour, Shayesteh (IRI) (Zonal 3.1)
51. Ranasinghe, S D (SRI) (Zonal 3.2) 
52. Li, Ruofan (SIN) (Zonal 3.3)
53. Davletbayeva, Madina (KAZ) (Zonal 3.4)
54. Ju Wenjun (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
55. Shen Yang (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
56. Huang Qian (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
57. Gu Xiaobing (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
58. Berezina, Irina (AUS) (Zonal 3.6)
59. Soumya, Swaminathan (IND) (Zonal 3.7)

g) 3 players from African Women’s Championship 2011
60. Mona, Khaled (EGY) 
61. Mezioud, Amina (ALG) 
62. Frick, Denise (RSA)

h) 2 nominees of the FIDE President
63. Guo Qi (CHN)
64. Olga Girya (RUS)

TOTAL: 64 players

What happened about the other losing World Championship semi finalist I wonder?

Sad to see Natalya Pogonina go out but she appears to have been pretty comprehensively outplayed by Ushenina over the two games.  Better luck next time for her.

Not sure who to root for now - maybe I'll be a male chauvenist pig and go for the prettiest lady. :)

I believe it was Monster with no name.

I posted in it so you would see it. A joke that's not funny.

Everyone I picked has lost, johyoudell. After the next three tie-break matches are decided, I'll probably jinx two more innocent people

Thanks woodshover:)

The Monster has me blocked

Is he right?

About the tournament being a joke to him? It's his opinion. I find it highly entertaining, myself. An 1800 played Yifan Hou in the first round, but that's because they limited the number of women from strong chess playing countries like China and Russia in order to be more globally represented. 

Oh.

I'm not excited about the format of the tournament. Too much randomness because of the short matches.  Why do they make the gals play this way?

... or maybe I'm just p*ssed because I was rooting for Lahno

One of the commentators at the WWCC website, Alexandr Khalifman, actually won the world chess championship in 1999 using the same format(w/ more players). He was quoted at the time: "Rating systems work perfectly for players who play only in round robin closed events. I think most of them are overrated. Organizers invite same people over and over because they have the same rating and their rating stays high". 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIDE_World_Chess_Championship_1999

The Khalifman quote is here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Khalifman