Venue and details of Women's World Championship

FIDE announces Nalchik as hosts

At the recent FIDE Presidential Board meeting in Athens, besides settling the venue for the Kamsky - Topalov match, the board also announced Nalchik, Russia as the venue for the Women's World Championship, to be held between 28th August and 18th September 2008.

Nalchik was apparently also chosen as the second cleanest city in Russia in 2003 according to Wikipedia!  How it fared in 2008 is not disclosed...

The format will be a 64 player KO event, with each round consisting of 2 games between the players, except the final which will be played over 4 games.

The time control for games is 40 moves in 90 minutes, with an extra 15 minutes to complete the game after that, with a 30 second bonus per move applying from the start of the game.

Tiebreaks will consist of 2 rapid games (4 in the final) at a rate of 25 minutes/game plus a 10 second increment.  If scores are still level then there will be 2 blitz games played at 5 minutes/game plus a 10 second increment.  If - heaven forbid - scores are still level then it's Armageddon time; White has 6 minutes, Black has 5 minutes, there is no increment and White has to win or else Black is declared the winner.

The qualifiers for the event are listed below (including Yelena Dembo).  Note that just because a player has qualified, doesn't mean they will definitely be playing e.g. Judit Polgar is no more likely to be playing in the event than I am!

If Irina Krush takes part, let's hope that she doesn't have to take part in an Armageddon playoff!