The

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

2013 was a

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

match for the championship. The match was scheduled over ten games from 10 to 27 September 2013 in Taizhou,

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. The match was played between defending champion

Anna Ushenina Anna Yuriyivna Ushenina (; born 30 August 1985) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster who was Women's World Chess Champion from November 2012 to September 2013. Personal life Ushenina lives in Kharkiv, where she was born. She is of Jewish ethnici ...

, winner of the

Women's World Chess Championship 2012 The Women's World Chess Championship 2012 was a knockout tournament, to decide the women's world champion. The title was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine for the first time. Defending champion Hou Yifan went out in the second round. The tournament ...

, and challenger

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time.

, the previous champion and winner of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012. After seven of ten games Hou Yifan won the match 5.5 to 1.5 to retake the title.

Previous head-to-head record

Prior to the match, as of 23 May 2013,

and

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time.

have played 8 games against each other at classical

time control A time control is a mechanism in the tournament play of almost all two-player board games so that each round of the match can finish in a timely way and the tournament can proceed. Time controls are typically enforced by means of a game cloc ...

with the following statistics:

Format

The match is played as at most ten classical games in the Taizhou Hotel, or less if one player reaches 5.5 points before that. The time controls are 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one. In case of a tie there will be a new drawing of colors and then four rapid games with 25 minutes for each player and an increment of ten seconds after each move. If the scores are level after the four rapid games, then, after a new drawing of colours, a match of two games will be played with a time control of five minutes plus three seconds' increment after each move. In case of a level score, another two-game match will be played to determine a winner. If there is still no winner after five such matches (i.e. after ten games), one sudden-death game will be played. The prize fund is 200,000 Euros with 60% for the winner and 40% to the loser if the match is decided within ten games or 55% and 45% if match is decided in tie-breaks.

Schedule

*10 September – Opening ceremony *11 September – Game 1 *12 September – Game 2 *13 September – Rest day *14 September – Game 3 *15 September – Game 4 *16 September – Rest day *17 September – Game 5 *18 September – Game 6 *19 September – Rest day *20 September – Game 7 *21 September – Game 8 *22 September – Rest day *23 September – Game 9 *24 September – Rest day *25 September – Game 10 *26 September – Rest day *27 September – Tie-break games *28 September – Closing ceremony

Match

The drawing of colors was on the opening ceremony day on 10 September. The first two games were played on 11 and 12 September. After every two games there is a rest day. Ushenina drew the white colors and played the first game with white. A switch of colors occurred after game 4. Hou Yifan dominated the match, winning four games, drawing three and losing none, and thus regained the championship title which she had lost the previous year. :

References

External links

Official FIDE website

Games of the Match
{{Women's World Chess Championships Women's World Chess Championships 2013 in chess Chess in China 2013 in Chinese sport Sport in Jiangsu