Dubai: Women’s world chess champion Hou Yifan of China beat Uzbekistan’s Nafisa Muminova in the first round of the World Chess Federation’s (FIDE) Women’s Grand Prix at Sharjah Chess Club on Monday.
Mongolia’s Batchimeg Tuvshintugs also upset India’s Koneru Humpy, while China’s Zhao Xue beat compatriot Zhu Chen and India’s Harika Dronavalli outplayed Romania’s Alina L’Ami.
Games between China’s Ju Wenjun and the Ukraine’s Anna Ushenina and Armenia’s Elina Danielian and Russia’s Tatiana Kosintseva ended in draws.
The final leg of the six-stage FIDE Women’s Grand Prix offers €60,000 (Dh291,000) for the tournament and €90,000 for the Grand Prix. The series decides the challenger to next year’s Women’s World Championship.
Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy leads the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series going into the final leg. 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 in the Grand Prix circuit will become the challenger.
Games are broadcast live through the www.fide.com website and start 3pm daily with rest days on August 29 and September 3.
