Sharjah: India’s Harika Dronavalli and China’s Ju Wenjun were tied at 2.5 points apiece after three rounds of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Chess Championship at the Sharjah Chess Club on Wednesday.
Dronavalli drew with current women’s world champion Hou Yifan of China, while Wenjun beat compatriot Zhao Xue.
China’s Yifan, Russia’s Tatiana Kosintseva, Ukraine’s Anna Ushinina and Mongolia’s Tuvshintugs Batchimeg were all tied for second at two points apiece. Kosintseva beat Romania’s Alina l’Almi, while Batchimeg drew with Ushinina. India’s Koneru Humpy drew with Uzbekistan’s Nafisa Muminova and Romania’s Elina Danielan beat Qatar’s Zhu Chen.
The final leg of the six-stage World Chess Federation (FIDE) Women’s Grand Prix offers €60,000 (Dh291,000) for the tournament and €90,000 total cash prizes for the Grand Prix. The series will choose the challenger to next year’s women’s world championship.
Twelve players are competing in a single round-robin of 11 rounds.
Each player plays in four of the six Grand Prix tournaments, but only the best three results count.
The player accumulating the highest number of points will get the right to challenge the women’s world champion in a match next year. If the same player wins both events, the second-placed player in the Grand Prix circuit will become the Challenger.
Koneru Humpy won the previous women’s Grand Prix tournament held June last year in Dilijan, Armenia, and repeated her victory in the next leg, in September in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. Humpy tied for seventh last June in Lopota, Georgia, which was won by Hou Yifan. Other previous Women’s Grand Prix tournaments in this series were held in Geneva, Switzerland and Khanti Mansiysk, Russia.
Games are broadcast live through the www.fide.com site, with live video coverage and post-game interviews of players.
