Women's World Chess Championship 2011 Explained

Comp1:Hou Yifan
Comp2:Humpy Koneru
Title1:Defending champion
Title2:Challenger
Flag1:China
Flag2:India
Dob1:27 February 1994
Age1:17 years old
Dob2:31 March 1987
Age2:24 years old
Qual1:Winner of the
Women's World Chess Championship 2010
Qual2:Runner-up of the
FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2009–2011
Elo1:2578
Elo2:2600
Womens Rank1:3
Womens Rank2:2
Prev:2010
Prev Link:Women's World Chess Championship 2010
Next:2012
Next Link:Women's World Chess Championship 2012
Score1:
Score2:
Elo1 Ref:[1]

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.[2]

On 8 August 2011 the match was awarded to Tirana, Albania. The prize fund was $200,000.[3] The match took place from 13 to 30 November 2011.[4] Champion Hou Yifan retained her title,[5] defeating challenger Koneru Humpy by 5½ - 2½.[6] [7] [8]

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.[9] 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.[10]

Should the match have been tied after ten games, tie-breaks would have kicked in. Those were:

Match stats

Women's World Chess Championship 2011
Rating 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Total
align=left Koneru Humpy2600½½0½½00½
align=left Hou Yifan2578½½1½½11½

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:[11]

Hou YifanDrawsKoneru HumpyTotal
Hou Yifan (White) – Koneru Humpy (Black) 5 2 0 7
Koneru Humpy (White) – Hou Yifan (Black) 3 4 2 9
Total86216

External links

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Top 100 Women November 2011 . FIDE . 1 September 2013.
  2. Web site: Women's World Championship Match 2011. 19 May 2011. FIDE.
  3. Web site: FIDE Awards Anand v Gelfand Match To Moscow. chess.com. 8 August 2011. 8 August 2011.
  4. Web site: 2011 Women's World Chess Championship.
  5. Web site: WWCC R08: Draw, Hou Yifan retains World Championship title. chessbase. 26 November 2011. 24 November 2011.
  6. Web site: Humpy pulls it off – wins Doha GM and qualifies. March 5, 2011. ChessBase.
  7. Web site: Koneru shares first with Danielian in Doha, qualifies for title match. March 6, 2011. chessvibes.com.
  8. Web site: Koneru ties for first with Danielian in Doha and qualifies for World Title Match. March 5, 2011. chess.co.uk.
  9. Web site: Opening ceremony: Koneru gets white pieces. wwcc2011tirana.com. 14 November 2011. 13 November 2011.
  10. Web site: Women's November 2011 rating list. FIDE. 21 November 2011.
  11. Web site: yifan-koneru search results. 2023-09-28.