Women's World Chess Championship 2015


The Women's World Chess Championship was held from 16 March to 7 April 2015 in Sochi, Russia. It was a 64-player knockout tournament. It was originally scheduled from 11 to 31 October 2014 but problems in finding a sponsor and host city eventually forced international chess organisation FIDE to announce the postponement of the Championship on 24 September 2014, scheduling it for early 2015 in Sochi. The unclear state of the tournament was highly criticised by the Association of Chess Professionals.
In the final, Ukrainian Mariya Muzychuk, seeded 8th, defeated Russian Natalia Pogonina, seeded 31st. As a result of this victory, Muzychuk was awarded the title of Grandmaster, qualified for the FIDE World Cup 2015, and earned the right to defend her title in a 2016 match against the winner of the Women's FIDE Grand Prix Series 2013-14, Hou Yifan.

Participants

The players were selected through national chess championships, zonal tournaments and continental chess championships. 51 players from women's continental and zonal qualifiers: Europe 28, Asia 12, Americas 8 and Africa 3.
The qualified players were announced on 22 January 2015, subject to signing the contract.
Three former world champions were in the field: Alexandra Kosteniuk seeded 5th, Antoaneta Stefanova 9th and Anna Ushenina 15th. Notably, women's world number one and defending champion Hou Yifan from China opted not to play, because of a prior commitment to a chess tournament in Hawaii. Also absent from the world top-10 were Nana Dzagnidze and Kateryna Lagno.
The participating players were seeded by their FIDE rating of March 2015.
  1. , GM, 2581
  2. , GM, 2557
  3. , GM, 2552
  4. , GM, 2530
  5. , GM, 2529
  6. , GM, 2528
  7. , GM, 2527
  8. , IM, 2526
  9. , GM, 2522
  10. , GM, 2513
  11. , GM, 2495
  12. , GM, 2492
  13. , GM, 2488
  14. , WGM, 2487
  15. , GM, 2486
  16. , IM, 2484
  17. , GM, 2483
  18. , GM, 2482
  19. , IM, 2481
  20. , IM, 2479
  21. , GM, 2477
  22. , GM, 2475
  23. , WGM, 2473
  24. , GM, 2471
  25. , GM, 2463
  26. , IM, 2459
  27. , WGM, 2459
  28. , IM, 2459
  29. , IM, 2457
  30. , WGM, 2456
  31. , WGM, 2456
  32. , WGM, 2444
  33. , WGM, 2444
  34. , IM, 2443
  35. , IM, 2443
  36. , IM, 2438
  37. , IM, 2436
  38. , IM, 2419
  39. , IM, 2415
  40. , IM, 2395
  41. , IM, 2384
  42. , WGM, 2381
  43. , GM, 2379
  44. , IM, 2377
  45. , IM, 2374
  46. , IM, 2367
  47. , WGM, 2365
  48. , WGM, 2354
  49. , IM, 2349
  50. , WGM, 2349
  51. , WGM, 2337
  52. , WGM, 2322
  53. , WGM, 2322
  54. , WIM, 2302
  55. , WGM, 2284
  56. , WIM, 2267
  57. , WGM, 2261
  58. , WIM, 2219
  59. , WGM, 2192
  60. , IM, 2182
  61. , WIM, 2130
  62. , WIM, 2071
  63. , WGM, 2058
  64. , WIM, 2022

    Qualification paths

Russia sent the most players with ten, one more than China.
Note that 26 of the players came from countries which were former Soviet republics.
Europe Asia/Oceania Americas Africa

Schedule and prize money

Two days per match were followed by possible tie-breaks on the next day if the match was tied. The only rest day was 1 April the day after the semi-finals.
The total prize-money was 450,000 US dollars, the same as in 2010 and 2012.
RoundMatchesTie-breaksPrize-money
First round17–18 March19 March3,750
Second round20–21 March22 March5,500
Third round23–24 March25 March8,000
Quarter-finals26–27 March28 March12,000
Semi-finals29–30 March31 March20,000
Final2–5 April6 Aprilloser 30,000
winner 60,000

Results

Final match

The final was the only match of the tournament which consisted of four classical games, played on consecutive days with a rest-day between the semi-final tie-breaks and match 1. Eventual tie-breaks, if needed, were scheduled to play on 6 April 2015, in the same manner as the whole tournament: two rapid games, i.e. 25 minutes for the whole game plus 10 seconds increment, the two rapid games, two blitz games and an armageddon decider.
Pogonina had the white pieces in the first game. Before the final they had met only once, in the 2007 European Individual Chess Championship, which ended in a draw.
In the final game 4, white pieces belonged to Muzychuk, who opened the game with her favorite 1.е4. Pogonina responded with her favorite 1...е5. In the Scotch Four Knights Game she tried to avoid the main variations by putting the bishop to b4 via c5. The idea allowed Black to duck the home preparation of Muzychuk. White, however, achieved a spatial advantage and overall more favorable game after the opening. Later White decided to advance kingside pawns, weakening own king. The Black also had pawn weaknesses and a sharp and dynamically balanced position emerged. On the move 41 Muzychuk carried out a simplifying combination, transposing to an endgame with two strong passed pawns against a knight. Pogonina was left with no winning chances, and the game ended in a draw on the move 56 after the move repetition.

Bracket

Players were seeded by their March rating. The standard bracket is used, i.e. seed #1 plays #64, #2 plays #63 and so on. The draw of who plays white first is done at the opening ceremony. Pairings published on 3 March.