Final FIDE Women's Grand Prix In Doha
The FIDE Women's Grand Prix series kicked off in March 2009 in Istanbul, and over nearly two years has seen further events in Nanjing, Nalchik, Jermuk and Ulaanbaatar.
The sixth and final tournament in the Women's Grand Prix series will run from 20 Feb - 6 March in Doha, Qatar. The official website can be found here.
The winner of the series becomes the new challenger for the Women's World Championship, which FIDE now intends to make an annual contest.
Since 16 year-old Hou Yifan of China is the current Women's World Champion, having earned the title in a giant KO event in Turkey last December, she will face the winner of the Grand Prix in a 10-game match later this year. In the event that Miss Hou wins the Grand Prix, the second placed finisher will be her challenger.
The current standings after five tournaments in the series:
| Player | Istanbul | Nanjing | Nalchik | Jermuk | Ulaanbaatar | Played | Best 3 |
| Hou Yifan | 120 | - | 130 | 70 | 160 | 4 | 410 |
| Nana Dzagnidze | - | 130 | 100 | 160 | - | 3 | 390 |
| Tatiana Kosintseva | - | - | 160 | 130 | 93⅓ | 3 | 383⅓ |
| Koneru Humpy | 160 | - | 70 | - | 93⅓ | 3 | 323⅓ |
| Zhao Xue | 90 | 110 | 40 | - | 93⅓ | 4 | 293⅓ |
| Antoaneta Stefanova | 45 | - | - | 93⅓ | 130 | 3 | 268⅓ |
| Xu Yuhua | - | 160 | - | 30 | 60 | 3 | 250 |
| Danielian Elina | 120 | - | 10 | 93⅓ | - | 3 | 223⅓ |
| Pia Cramling | 65 | - | 100 | 55 | - | 3 | 220 |
| Lilit Mkrtchian | - | 80 | 40 | 93⅓ | - | 3 | 213⅓ |
| Marie Sebag | 80 | 80 | - | - | 30 | 3 | 190 |
| Shen Yang | 25 | 60 | - | 55 | 45 | 4 | 160 |
| Maia Chiburdanidze | 45 | - | - | 40 | 70 | 3 | 155 |
| Zhu Chen | - | 30 | 70 | - | 45 | 3 | 145 |
| Batkhuyag Munguntuu | - | 50 | 70 | - | 20 | 3 | 140 |
| Kovanova Baira | - | 40 | 40 | 20 | - | 3 | 100 |
| Martha Fierro | 65 | 20 | - | 10 | - | 3 | 95 |
| Ju Wenjun | - | 80 | withdrew | 1 | 80 | ||
| Betul Cemre Yildiz | 10 | 10 | 20 | - | 10 | 4 | 50 |
| Mamedjarova Zeinab | 25 | withdrew | 1 | 25 |
The best three results (out of four) of each player count towards their total score. 160 points are awarded to the winner, 130 for the runner-up, 110 for third, then 90 points down to 10 for the rest. Points are shared if scores between players are tied.
Since Tatiana Kosintseva will not be competing in Doha (she was due to compete in Nanjing but was unable to do so and was replaced by Ju Wenjun), the only players left in the running to become the challenger are Nana Dzagnidze and Humpy Koneru (pictured above).
Therefore, it looks like Humpy Koneru needs to finish clear first in Doha and also hope that Nana Dzagnidze doesn't finish clear second, if she is to become the challenger. Otherwise Nana Dzagnidze will face Hou Yifan for the title.
Each tournament winner gets 6,500 euros and the overall series winner gets 15,000 euros.
The line-up for Doha looks like this:
| Koneru, Humpy | IND |
| Stefanova, Antoaneta | BUL |
| Cramling, Pia | SVE |
| Dzagnidze, Nana | GEO |
| Sebag Marie | FRA |
| Chiburdanidze, Maia | GEO |
| Chen, Zhu | QTR |
| Danielian, Elina | ARM |
| Yuhua, Xu | CHN |
| Batkhuyag, Munguntuul | MGL |
| Fierro, Martha | ECU |
| Mrktchian, Lilit | ARM |
Schedule:
| 20th February 2011 | Arrival |
| 21st February 2011 | Opening Ceremony |
| 22nd February 2011 | Round 1 |
| 23rd February 2011 | Round 2 |
| 24th February 2011 | Round 3 |
| 25th February 2011 |
Round 4 |
| 26th February 2011 | Round 5 |
| 27th February 2011 | Free Day |
| 28th February 2011 | Round 6 |
| 1st March 2011 | Round 7 |
| 2nd March 2011 | Round 8 |
| 3rd March 2011 | Round 9 |
| 4th March 2011 | Round 10 |
| 5th March 2011 | Round 11 & Closing Ceremony |
| 6th March 2011 | Departure |
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