Women's World Chess Championship 2011
The Women's World Chess Championship 2011 was the 35th of its kind. It was organised by FIDE and was played in a match format between the defending champion and a challenger, determined via the FIDE Grand Prix series.[1]
On 8 August 2011 the match was awarded to Tirana, Albania. The prize fund was $200,000.[2] The match took place from 13 to 30 November 2011.[3] Champion Hou Yifan retained her title,[4] defeating challenger Koneru Humpy by 5½ - 2½.[5][6][7]
Match format
The match was scheduled to be played over 10 games with classical time controls: 90 minutes for first 40 moves with added 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move starting from the first move.
Koneru Humpy played White in the first game.[8] Colours then alternated, except after game 4. The two players were ranked second and third in the world at the time, behind only Judit Polgár.[9]
Should the match have been tied after ten games, tie-breaks would have kicked in. Those were:
- Up to four rapid games (25 minutes per player with a 10-second increment from the first move)
- two rapid games (5 minutes per player with a 3-second increment from the first move)
- One armageddon game that Black only needs to draw to win the match (5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black with a 3-second increment from move 61)
Match stats
Women's World Chess Championship 2011 Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total 
Koneru Humpy2600 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 2½ 
Hou Yifan2578 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 5½
After eight out of ten games the match was decided, by Hou Yifan drawing with Black and reaching 5½ points.
Head-to-head record
Prior to the match, Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy had played 16 games against each other at classical time control with the following statistics:[10]
| Hou Yifan | Draws | Koneru Humpy | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hou Yifan (White) – Koneru Humpy (Black) | 5 | 2 | 0 | 7 |
| Koneru Humpy (White) – Hou Yifan (Black) | 3 | 4 | 2 | 9 |
| Total | 8 | 6 | 2 | 16 |
References
- ↑ "Women's World Championship Match 2011". FIDE. Retrieved 19 May 2011.
- ↑ "FIDE Awards Anand v Gelfand Match To Moscow". chess.com. 8 August 2011. Retrieved 8 August 2011.
- ↑ http://www.chess.com/news/2011-womens-world-chess-championship-5015
- ↑ "WWCC R08: Draw, Hou Yifan retains World Championship title". chessbase. 24 November 2011. Retrieved 26 November 2011.
- ↑ ChessBase (March 5, 2011). "Humpy pulls it off – wins Doha GM and qualifies".
- ↑ chessvibes.com (March 6, 2011). "Koneru shares first with Danielian in Doha, qualifies for title match".
- ↑ chess.co.uk (March 5, 2011). "Koneru ties for first with Danielian in Doha and qualifies for World Title Match".
- ↑ "Opening ceremony: Koneru gets white pieces". wwcc2011tirana.com. 13 November 2011. Retrieved 14 November 2011.
- ↑ "Women's November 2011 rating list". FIDE. Retrieved 21 November 2011.
- ↑ http://www.chessgames.com/perl/ezsearch.pl?search=yifan-koneru