FIDE Women's Grand Prix
The FIDE Grand Prix events have been beset with venue and rule changes, but have nonetheless managed to provide lots of top-quality chess.
There is also a Women's Grand Prix which has received rather less attention, but which is also worth following. The highest ranked player competing is Koneru Humpy from India (pictured).
The latest tournament in the series has just started and so will inevitably be overshadowed by the World Championship match. But if two games every three days isn't enough for you then you can get an extra fix from the latest games in the Nalchik Women's Grand Prix.
From the FIDE website:
The FIDE Women Grand Prix is a new series of elite tournaments which will be organised by FIDE and Global Chess. There will be 6 legs over two years in various countries around the world with three tournaments every year.
The winner of each tournament will win 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 euros and the overall winner of the series will win a further 15,000 euros at the end of the series.
This is the first time that such a series is being organised and is a significant development for the chess world. The introduction of the Grand Prix series means that there will be a World Championship contest annually now from 2010. In that year, the Champion will be determined from the World Championship Knockout which will also be held in Turkey and the following year, 2011, the World Champions will face the Winner of the Grand Prix series 2009/2010 in a match for the title.
This will be one of the strongest women tournaments of all times and it is important to point out that there are three ex-world Champions taking part as well as the highest ranked women players in the world.
Nalchik, Russia: 25rd April - 7th May 2010
Jermuk, Armenia: 23rd June- 6th July 2010
Ulanbaatar, Mongolia: 29 July - 12 August 2010
Santiago, Chile: 27th October- 9th November 2010
Women's Grand Prix in Nalchik, 25 Apr - 8 May 2010
The list of participants:
GM Koneru Humpy 2622 IND
GM Yifan Hou 2570 CHN
GM Kosintseva Tatiana 2524 RUS
GM Cramling Pia 2523 SWE
IM Mkrtchan Lilit 2503 ARM
IM Danielian Elina 2491 ARM
GM Zhao Xue 2490 CHN
GM Dzagnidze Nana 2479 GEO
GM Chen Zhu 2476 QAT
WGM Batkhuyag Munguntuul 2428 MGL
WGM Kovanova Baira 2385 RUS
WIM Yildiz Betul Cemre 2244 TRK
