The

FIDE Women's Grand Prix The FIDE Women's Grand Prix is a biennial series of chess tournaments, organized by FIDE. Results Hou Yifan has won all three Grand Prix she has played. Koneru Humpy has been the perennial runner-up, coming second in each of the first five Grand ...

2009–2011 was a series of six

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

tournaments exclusively for women, which formed part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2011. The winner of the Grand Prix (the one with most Grand Prix points) was to challenge

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster, three-time Women's World Chess Champion and professor at Peking University. She is the second highest Elo rating system, rated female player of all time.

—the 2010 world champion— in the third quarter of 2011. As Hou Yifan also won the Grand Prix,

Koneru Humpy Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Humpy is a runner-up of the Women's World Chess Championship and the reigning two-time Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. In 2002, she became the youngest female player--and ...

as the runner-up qualified for the championship match. The final tournament was originally scheduled to take place in

Santiago de Chile Santiago (, ; ), also known as Santiago de Chile (), is the capital city, capital and largest city of Chile and one of the largest cities in the Americas. It is located in the country's Chilean Central Valley, central valley and is the center ...

starting on October 23, 2010. However, due to problems with financing, the host was replaced and the final tournament was then played in

Doha Doha ( ) is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor (city), Al Khor and Lusail, it is home to most of the country's population. It ...

Qatar Qatar, officially the State of Qatar, is a country in West Asia. It occupies the Geography of Qatar, Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it shares Qatar–Saudi Arabia border, its sole land b ...

Format

Eighteen of the top female players in the world were to be selected to compete in these tournaments. Each player would contract to participate in exactly 4 of these tournaments. Players must rank their preference of tournaments once the final list of host cities was announced and the dates allocated to each host city. Each tournament was staged as a 12-player, single

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

. In each round players scored 1 point for a win, ½ point for a

draw Draw, drawing, draws, or drawn most commonly refer to: * Draw (terrain), a terrain feature formed by two parallel ridges or spurs with low ground in between them * Draw (tie), in a competition, where competitors achieve equal outcomes * Draw ...

and 0 for a loss. Grand prix points were then allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament: 160 points for first place, 130 for second place, 110 for third place, and then 90 down to 10 points for places four to twelve (decreasing by 10 points for each place). Grand Prix points were split between players on equal tournament points. Players only counted their best three tournament results in the overall standings. The player with the most total grand prix points for those three tournaments was the winner.

Players and qualification

The 18 players qualified were: * The top four from the World Championship 2008: **''

Alexandra Kosteniuk Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk (; born 23 April 1984) is a Russian and Swiss chess grandmaster who was the Women's World Chess Champion from 2008 to 2010 and Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021. She was European women's champion ...

'' (declined to participate),

Pia Cramling Pia Ann Rosa-Della Cramling (born 23 April 1963) is a Swedish chess grandmaster. Since the early 1980s, she has been one of the strongest female players in the world as well as the highest-rated woman in the FIDE World Rankings on three occasio ...

, and

. * The six highest rated players (average of October 2007 and October 2008 lists) not already qualified: **''

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...

'' (declined), ''

Susan Polgar Susan Polgar (born April 19, 1969, as Polgár Zsuzsanna and often known as Zsuzsa Polgár) is a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster. Polgár was Women's World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999. On FIDE's Elo rating system list of July 1984, a ...

'' (declined), ''

Xie Jun Xie Jun (born October 30, 1970) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and is the first Asian woman to become a chess grandmaster. She had two separate reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001. Xie is one ...

'' (declined),

Zhao Xue Zhao Xue (; born 6 April 1985) is a Chinese chess player. She is the 24th Chinese person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Zhao was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2016, and a ...

, Marie Sebag, and

Zhu Chen Zhu Chen (, ; born March 13, 1976) is a Chinese and Qatari chess grandmaster. In 1999, she became China's second women's world chess champion after Xie Jun, and China's 13th Grandmaster. In 2006, she obtained Qatari citizenship and since the ...

. * Two players nominated by the FIDE president: **

Nana Dzagnidze Nana Dzagnidze ( ka, ნანა ძაგნიძე; born 1 January 1987) is a Georgian chess player. She was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2008. Dzagnidze was a member of the gold medal-winning Georgian team in the Women's Che ...

and

Elina Danielian Elina Danielian (; born 16 August 1978) is an Armenian chess grandmaster and six-time Armenian women's champion (1993, 1994. 1999, 2002, 2003, 2004). She has represented Armenia twelve times during the Women's Chess Olympiads (1992–2014). She ...

. * One nominee from each of the six host cities: ** Betul Cemre Yildiz (Istanbul), Shen Yang (Nanjing),

Zeinab Mamedyarova Zeinab Hamid qizi Mamedyarova (also spelled Mamedjarova; ; born 3 October 1983) is an Azerbaijani chess player holding the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Career In 2000, Mamedyarova won the Girls U18 section of the World Youth Champi ...

Lilit Mkrtchian Lilit Mkrtchian (; born 9 August 1982) is an Armenian chess player. She holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), which FIDE awarded her in 2003 and 1998 respectively. Mkrtchian is a four-time Armenian women's ...

(Jermuk),

Batkhuyag Munguntuul Batkhuyag Munguntuul (; born 8 October 1987) is a Mongolian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008 and 2010. Munguntuul took ...

(Ulaanbaataar), and Martha Fierro (Santiago). The four players who declined to participate were replaced by the following reserves (on rating):

Antoaneta Stefanova Antoaneta Stefanova (; born 19 April 1979) is a Bulgarian chess grandmaster and Women's World Champion from 2004 to 2006. She has represented Bulgaria in the Chess Olympiad in 2000 and the Women's Chess Olympiad since 1992. Early life and ca ...

Tatiana Kosintseva Tatiana Anatolyevna Kosintseva (; born 11 April 1986) is a Russian chess grandmaster. She was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2007. Kosintseva is a two-time European women's champion and three-time Russian women's champion. She was a m ...

Maia Chiburdanidze Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until ...

, and

Xu Yuhua Xu Yuhua (born 29 October 1976) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and former Women's World Champion (2006–2008). She was China's third women's world chess champion after Xie Jun and Zhu Chen. She has been followed by Chinese women's world che ...

. Although Santiago was replaced as host city by Doha, their nominee Fierro was allowed to stay in the series. Mamedyarova was excluded from the series after the first tournament in Istanbul and replaced by Baira Kovanova due to change of host city to Nalchik. Kosintseva was unable to play in Nanjing and reserve

Ju Wenjun Ju Wenjun (; born 31 January 1991) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. She is the reigning five-time Women's World Champion, the reigning Women's World Blitz Chess Champion, and a two-time Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. In March 2017, she be ...

took her place in that tournament.

Tie-breaks

With the objective of determining a clear, single winner to play in the championship match in the case that two or more players had equal cumulative points at the top, the following criteria (in descending order) would be utilized to decide the overall winner: # The fourth result not already in the top three performances # The number of actual game points scored in the four tournaments # The number of first-place finishes # The number of second-place finishes # The number of won games # Drawing of lots

Prize money and Grand Prix points

The prize fund was €40,000 per Grand Prix event and €60,000 for the overall Grand Prix placement.Regulations for the 2009–2010 Women's FIDE Grand-Prix
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Schedule and results

Events crosstables

: : : : : :

Grand Prix standings

The Grand Prix was won by

, but as she was already qualified for the

championship match A single-elimination knockout, or sudden-death tournament is a type of elimination tournament where the loser of a match-up is immediately eliminated from the tournament. Each winner will play another in the next round, until the final match-up, w ...

as title holder, runner-up

qualified as challenger. Her tied first place in Doha was just enough to overtake

and secure second place in the overall standings.

References

External links

*
Detailed Tournament results and standings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Fide Women's Grand Prix 2009-2011 FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2009 in chess 2010 in chess 2011 in chess