Jermuk FIDE Women's Grand Prix Update

Ju Wenjun of China is leading the FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Jermuk, Armenia with a score of 4½ points after six rounds.

Hou Yifan, Humpy Koneru and Ruan Lufei are just half a point behind the leader in this 12-player single round-robin event.

The Jermuk Women's Grand Prix is the fifth in a series of six tournaments to determine the challenger for the 2013 Women's World Championship, against reigning champion Hou Yifan.  If Hou emerges as the Grand Prix series winner, then the runner-up will challenge her for the title.

Hou Yifan won the first 2 Grand Prix events in Rostov and Shenzhen, while Zhao Xue took achieved a crushing victory in the third Grand Prix in Nalchik (Hou Yifan did not compete there).  The fourth Grand Prix in Kazan had joint winners - Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk.  The current standings in the overall Grand Prix can be found in our previous report.

The final round in Jermuk is scheduled for the 28 July. The winner of each of the six Grand Prix tournaments in the series earns €6,500 out of a prize fund of €40,000, and the overall winner will win receive a further €15,000.

The current standings in Jermuk:

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Ju Wenjun leads the Jermuk Grand Prix after six rounds

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The full regulations for the 2011/12 Grand Prix can be found here.  More information and coverage is available at the official website.

Picture from the official website.