2008 Women's World Chess Championship

And then there were four... Kosteniuk defeats Ushenina and Cramling draws with Stefanova. Both Ushenina and Stefanova have been playing excellent chess all year (I have to say, though, so has Cramling). Kosteniuk and Cramling in the final four, this has shaped up to be one excellent world championship, despite the absence of 20% of the invited players. That is a dirty rotten shame - a shame on FIDE, and I will continue to remark upon it as long as I write about women's chess. Here are the final four and their match-ups tomorrow: GM P. Cramling (2544) - GM A. Kosteniuk (2510) GM H. Koneru (2622) - GM-elect Y. Hou (2557) I have no idea what will happen when these players face-off tomorrow. Could Susan Polgar be right, thinking that perhaps this is finally the veteran Cramling's year to win it all? At 45, she is (and was) the oldest player in the entire field - she's been a GM since 1992 and, like Koneru and now, Hou, she earned her GM the hard way - playing against men. Here are the results from the second game of Round 4: GM Cramling (2544) 1/2 - GM Stefanova (2550) 1/2 GM-elect Hou (2557) 1 - IM_Mkrtchian (2436) 0 WGM Shen (2445) 0 - GM Koneru (2622) 1 WGM Ushenina (2476) 0 - GM Kosteniuk (2510) 1