Women's World Championship - 1st round draw
The Women's World Chess Championship will take place in Nalchik, Russia from 28 August to 19 September, as reported previously at Chess.com.
The draw for the first round has now been announced and as expected, the top rated chess player in the world by a mile, Judit Polgar (pictured), will not be playing. Judit makes a point of not playing in 'women only' events and has never competed for the Women's World Chess Championship, preferring to play against the best men in the world instead (she is currently ranked 22nd in the world).
Another sad absentee is Yelena Dembo who qualified but seems to have opted not to play. If you're reading this Yelena, can you let us know why you won't be taking part? 
The full draw for the first round is:
| 1 | Xu, Yuhua (CHN) | Solomons, Anzel (RSA) |
| 2 | Koneru, Humpy (IND) | Alaa El Din, Yorsa (EGY) |
| 3 | Hou, Yifan (CHN) | Khaled, Mona (EGY) |
| 4 | Stefanova, Antoaneta (BUL) | Zapata, Karen (PER) |
| 5 | Cramling, Pia (SWE) | Sanchez Castillo, Sarai (VEN) |
| 6 | Sebag, Marie (FRA) | Gasik, Anna (POL) |
| 7 | Zhao, Xue (CHN) | Zuriel, Marisa (ARG) |
| 8 | Kosintseva, Tatjana (RUS) | Muminova, Nafisa (UZB) |
| 9 | Kosteniuk, Alexandra (RUS) | Pourkashiyan, Atousa (IRI) |
| 10 | Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU) | Golubenko, Valentina (CRO) |
| 11 | Muzychuk, Anna (SLO) | Velcheva, Maria (BUL) |
| 12 | Ruan, Lufei (CHN) | Zakurdjaeva, Irina (RUS) |
| 13 | Zhukova, Natalia (UKR) | Rohonyan, Katherine (USA) |
| 14 | Chiburdanidze, Maya (GEO) | Nguyen, Thi Thanh An (VIE) |
| 15 | Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN) | Arribas Robaina, Maritza (CUB) |
| 16 | Paehtz, Elisabeth (GER) | Kadimova, Ilaha (AZE) |
| 17 | Ushenina, Anna (UKR) | Le Thanh Tu (VIE) |
| 18 | Socko, Monika (POL) | Foisor, Sabina-Francesca (ROM) |
| 19 | Krush, Irina (USA) | Sedina, Elena (ITA) |
| 20 | Gaponenko, Inna (UKR) | Zhang Jilin (CHN) |
| 21 | Javakhishvili, Lela (GEO) | Amura, Claudia (ARG) |
| 22 | Harika, Dronavalli (IND) | Nebolsina, Vera (RUS) |
| 23 | Kosintseva, Nadezhda (RUS) | Mohota, Nisha (IND) |
| 24 | Korbut, Ekaterina (RUS) | Gvetadze, Sopio (GEO) |
| 25 | Zatonskih, Anna (USA) | Bosboom Lanchava, Tea (NED) |
| 26 | Shen, Yang (CHN) | Kachiani-Gersinska, Ketino (GER) |
| 27 | Mkrtchian, Lilit (ARM) | Moser, Eva (AUT) |
| 28 | Tania, Sachdev (IND) | Tan Zongyi (CHN) |
| 29 | Bojkovic, Natasa (SRB) | Ju, Wenjun (CHN) |
| 30 | Rajlich, Iweta (POL) | Mongontuul, Bathuyang (MGL) |
| 31 | Lomineishvili, Maia (GEO) | Khukhashvili, Sopiko (GEO) |
| 32 | Khurtsidze, Nino (GEO) | Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS) |
Each pair plays each other twice and if the scores are level there are rapid tiebreak games (as described previously, here).
Xu Yuhua will defend the title that she won in 2006, but Koneru Humpy of India is the ratings favourite (Elo 2622) followed by 14 year-old Hou Yifan of China (2557 Elo). The newest female GM, Marie Sebag will also be a tough competitor (2529 Elo) and it will be interesting to see how Alexandra Kosteniuk (2510 Elo) gets on after taking time away from the game to start a family.
