2008 Women's World Chess Championship

I have updated my coverage at Chess Femme News through the end of second game of the first round. The following players are advancing to the next round: CHN Xu, Yuhua IND Koneru, Humpy CHN Hou, Yifan BUL Stefanova, Antoaneta (by default) SWE Cramling, Pia POL Gasik, Anna (by default) CHN Zhao, Xue RUS Kosintseva, Tatjana RUS Kosteniuk, Aleksandra LTU Chmilyte, Viktorija SLO Muzychuk, Anna VIE Nguyen, Thi Thanh An (by default) HUN Hoang Thanh Trang UKR Ushenina, Anna ITA Sedina, Elena (by default) UKR Gaponenko, Inna ARG Amura, Claudia (by default) IND Harika, Dronavalli RUS Kosintseva, Nadezhda USA Zatonskih, Anna (by default) CHN Shen, Yang CHN Tan, Zongyi MGL Mongontuul, Bathuyang RUS Matveeva, Svetlana (by default) Players denoted "by default" did not have to play either of their two games because of the absence of 11 top players from the WWCC - the Georgian "team" of 6 players and five other players, including USA's IM Irina Krush and France's GM-elect Marie Sebag, who recently earned her third GM norm by her excellent performance in the "Men's" European Individual Chess Championship held earlier this year. In my opinion, these four players received an automatic pass to the next round who might not have made it otherwise: Anna Gasic, POL 2211; Nguyen, Thi Thanh An VIE 2323; Sedina, Elena ITA 2344; Amura, Claudia ARG 2345. It is also my opinion that these three players obtained an unfair advantage over the rest of the field by not having to play the first or second games and because they didn't have to expend time to prepare for the second game: Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL 2550; Zatonskih, Anna USA 2446; Matveeva, Svetlana RUS 2412. Also in my opinion, THIS IS NOT FAIR TO THE OTHER PLAYERS. There is no way to compensate for some players having to play two full chess games while other players did not! The following players will play-off tomorrow: UKR Zhukova, Natalia v. USA Rohonyan, Katerine AZE Kadimova, Ilaha v. GER Paehtz, Elisabeth ROM Foisor, Sabina-Francesca v. POL Socko, Monika ARM Mkrtchian, Lilit v. AUT Moser, Eva SRB Bojkovic, Natasa v. CHN Ju, Wenjun