Rough start Women World Ch

The Women's World Championship in Nalchik has experienced a rough start. Not only did 11 of the 64 eligible players decide not to participate, but already in the first round there was a major dispute.

The Women's World Chess Championship cycle is organised bi-annually and includes National Championships, Zonal Tournaments, Continental Championships and the final stage, the Women's World Chess Championship, which is a 64-player knock out system. The time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move from move one.

The Women's World Championship 2008 is held in Nalchik, Russia. The town of Nalchik is the capital of the Kabardino-Balkariain region, which is close to the Georgian border and as reported in two articles, a number of players including all from Georgia decided not to participate.

Although it could have been possible for a few perhaps, there were not replacements at all for these players and so Maia Chiburdanidze, Lela Javakhishvili, Sopio Gvetadze, Maia Lomineishvili, Sopiko Khukhashvili and Nino Khurtsidze (all from Georgia) and Tea Bosboom Lanchava, Karen Zapata, Marie Sebag, Irina Krush and Ekaterina Korbut lost by default in the first round.

In that first round most of the top seeds went through but there were a few upsets. Most surprising was the knockout of WGM Natalia Zhukova (2489, Ukraine). Seeded 13th, she lost in the tiebreak to 52nd seeded WGM Katerine Rohonyan (2321, USA).

Results Round 1

Round 1 Round 2 Round 3 Round 4 Round 5 Round 6   1 Xu Yuhua 1.5   Xu Yuhua 64 Solomons 0.5     32 Khurtsidze 0       Matveeva     33 Matveeva 2     16 Paehtz 4       Paehtz     49 Kadimova 3             17 Ushenina 1.5       Ushenina     48 Le Thanh Tu 0.5     8 Kosintseva,T 2       Kosintseva,T     57 Muminova 0             25 Zatonskih 2           Zatonskih         40 Bosboom Lanchava 0             9 Kosteniuk 2       Kosteniuk     56 Pourkashyan 0             24 Korbut 0       -     41 Gvetadze 0     4 Stefanova 2     Stefanova   61 Zapata 0         29 Bojkovic 1.5         Ju, Wenjun       36 Ju, Wenjun 2.5         13 Zhukova 1.5         Rohonyan       52 Rohonyan 2.5                 20 Gaponenko 1.5         Gaponenko       45 Zhang Jilin 0.5         5 Cramling 1.5     Cramling   60 Sanchez Castillo 0.5         28 Tania 0.5         Tan Zongyi       37 Tan Zongyi 1.5         12 Ruan 1.5     Ruan   53 Zakurdjaeva 0.5         21 Javakhisvili 0     Amura   44 Amura 2   2 Koneru 2   Koneru 63 Alaa El Din 0     31 Lomineishvili 0       -     34 Khukhashvili 0     15 Hoang Thanh 1.5       Hoang Thanh     50 Arribas 0.5             18 Socko 4       Socko     47 Foisor,S 3     7 Zhao Xue 2       Zhao Xue     58 Zuriel 0             26 Shen Yang 1.5           Shen Yang         39 Kachiani-G 0.5             10 Cmilyte 1.5       Cmilyte     55 Golubenko 0.5             23 Kosintseva,N 2       Kosintseva,N     42 Mohota 0     3 Hou Yifan 2     Hou Yifan   62 Khaled 0         30 Rajlich 0         Mongontuul        35 Mongontuul 2         14 Chiburdanidze 0         Nguyen, Thi         51 Nguyen, Thi 2                 19 Krush 0         Sedina       46 Sedina 2         6 Sebag 0     Gasik   59 Gasik 2         27 Mkrtchian 3.5         Mkrtchian       38 Moser 2.5         11 Muzychuk 2     Muzychuk   54 Velcheva 0         22 Harika 2     Harika   43 Nebolsina 0

The schedule of the Women World Ch is very similar to the World Cup's in Khanty-Mansiysk:

Thursday	28	August	Opening Ceremony/Player's Meeting
Friday	29	August	Round 1, game 1
Saturday	30	August	Round 1, game 2
Sunday	31	August	Tiebreaks
Monday	01	September	Round 2, game 1
Tuesday	02	September	Round 2, game 2
Wednesday	03	September	Tiebreaks
Thursday	04	September	Round 3, game 1
Friday	05	September	Round 3, game 2
Saturday	06	September	Tiebreaks
Sunday	07	September	Round 4, game 1
Monday	08	September	Round 4, game 2
Tuesday	09	September	Tiebreaks
Wednesday	10	September	Round 5, game 1
Thursday	11	September	Round 5, game 2
Friday	12	September	Tiebreaks
Saturday	13	September	Free Day
Sunday	14	September	Round 6, game 1
Monday	15	September	Round 6, game 2
Tuesday	16	September	Round 6, game 3
Wednesday	17	September	Round 6, game 4
Thursday	18	September	Tiebreaks/Closing Ceremony

The tiebreak rules for the first five rounds are as follows: if the scores are level after the regular games, after a new drawing of colours, two tie break games are played with 25 minutes for each player plus 10 seconds increment. If the score is still level, two five-minute games are played again with 10 seconds increment.

If the score is still level, the players play one decisive sudden death game. The player, who wins the drawing of lots, may choose the colour. White receives 6 minutes, Black 5 minutes, without increment. The winner qualifies for the next round. In case of a draw the player with the black pieces qualifies for the next round.

One of the first-round matches that actually reached the sudden death game was the one between IM Monika Socko (2473, POL) and WIM Sabina-Francesca Foisor (2337, ROM). Socko was playing the White pieces and thus she had started with six minutes against Foisor playing Black and with five minutes on the clock.

In a position where both sides had just one knight besides their king, Foisor's flag fell. The arbiters present didn't know whether to declare the game lost because of the flag-fall, or drawn because of the scarce material left on the board, and a heated debate started, which can be seen in a video below.

In the end it was the Appeals Committee that decided the game in Socko's favour:

[...] the Appeals Committee has decided that indeed based on the provisions of Article 9.6, playing in a most unskilled manner can result in the position indicated by the Chief Arbiter which can lead to a checkmate. Therefore the Appeals Committee has decided that the game is a win for white.

Georgios Makropoulos, Chairman Lewis Ncube, member Lakhdar Mazouz, member

Stricktly speaking they might be right, but as IM Anthony Saidy pointed out in Chess Today, it doesn't require a poor player to get self mated in this position:

Not so, self-mate requires skill! This also applies to positions with K + B vs. K + B (opposite squared) and K + N vs. K + B. So if Foisor had only a king, it would have remained a draw. You can get mated by K + N too vs. your. K + R. What would the appeal committee have decided if Foisor had a rook? [...]

The venue of the Women World Championship

With especially beautiful chairs

The medals that the women are fighting for

Dancers at the Openin Ceremony outside...

...and inside

The first move, with many officials present

Antoaneta Stefanova from Bulgaria

Viktorija Cmylite from Lithuania

Elisabeth Paehtz from Germany

Tania Sachdev from India

Iweta Rajlich from Poland

Atousa Pourkashiyan from Iran



Photos courtesy of FIDE

Links:

• Official website
• Games in PGN