The

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship is a chess match played to determine the Women's World Chess Champion. It has been administered by FIDE since its inception in 1927, unlike the absolute World Chess Championship, which only came under FIDE's ...

2010 took place in

Antakya Antakya (), Turkish form of Antioch, is a municipality and the capital Districts of Turkey, district of Hatay Province, Turkey. Its area is . Prior to the devastating 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, 2023 earthquakes, its population was recorded ...

, Turkey from December 2 through 24, 2010. The tournament, like the previous ones, was played in a 64-player knock-out format. Each pairing consisted of two games, one with white and one with black, from which the winner advanced. In case of a tie, tiebreaks were played the next day, consisting of two rapid games and—if still tied—an

Armageddon Armageddon ( ; ; ; from ) is the prophesied gathering of armies for a battle during the end times, according to the Book of Revelation in the New Testament of the Christian Bible. Armageddon is variously interpreted as either a literal or a ...

match. The final consisted of four games 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. For turn-based games such as chess, shogi or go, time cont ...

, if necessary followed by four rapid tiebreak games. The title was won by

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.

from China who beat her compatriot Ruan Lufei in the final by 5–3, at 16 years of age making her the youngest Women's World Chess Champion in history.

Participants

Players were seeded by their

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

s (November 2010 list),FIDE November 2010 Top 100 Women
/ref> except that defending champion

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 ...

was the No. 1 seed.

Qualification paths

Notable absentees

The number one woman in the world,

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 ...

, never competed for the women's title and did not enter this time either. World number five,

Nadezhda Kosintseva Nadezhda Anatolyevna Kosintseva (; born 14 January 1985) is a Russian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2010 and 2012, and in the Women's European Te ...

, did not play either, although her sister Tatiana (ranked 4th) did. Other names missing from the top 20 were:

Irina Krush Irina Borisivna Krush (; born December 24, 1983) is an American chess Grandmaster. She is the only woman to earn the GM title while playing for the United States. Krush is an eight-time U.S. Women's Champion and a two-time Women's American Cu ...

(17th), former finalist

Alisa Galliamova Alisa Mikhailovna Galliamova (, ; born 18 January 1972 in Kazan) is a Russian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is twice runner-up at the Women's World Chess Championship, in 19 ...

(19th) and ex-champion Xu Yuhua (20th).

Iweta Rajlich Iweta Rajlich (born Radziewicz, 16 March 1981) is a Polish chess International Master and Woman Grandmaster, multiple winner of Women Chess Championships of Poland. She married Vasik Rajlich, the author of Rybka, on 19 August 2006. Iweta is the ...

and Arianne Caoili were listed as participants but unable to attend; their scheduled opponents,

Jovanka Houska Jovanka Houska (born 10 June 1980) is an English chess player with the titles International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a nine-time British Chess Championship, British Women's Chess Champion. Formative years Born in south L ...

and

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 ...

, were given byes through to the second round.

Results

Final match

Bracket

References

External links

*
ChessBase: 2010 Women's World Chess Championship – Preview

FIDE calendar 2009 with continental and zonal championships standings
{{Women's World Chess Championships Women's World Chess Championships 2010 in chess Chess in Turkey Sport in Antakya 2010 in Turkish sport International sports competitions hosted by Turkey 2010 in women's sport