Monday, February 2, 2009
Women's Grand Prix: Ataturk Tournament
GM Susan Polgar is one of the invitees to this event in the FIDE "Women's Grand Prix." The first I heard of a Women's Grand Prix was reading about it at GM Polgar's blog! Evidently bids were let out in June, 2008 (?):
Format of the Women’s Grand Prix 2009-2010The Grand Prix will be a series of six tournaments held over two years (2009-2010) in leading world cities. The bidding process for the final selection of cities will commence in June 2008 and be finalized by Dresden Congress, November 2008.
Here are the original qualifiers/invitees:
1. Kosteniuk Alexandra (RUS) WWC 2008
2. Hou Yifan (CHN) – finalist WWCC 2008
3. Koneru Humpy (IND) – semifinalist WWCC 2008
4. Pia Cramling (SWE) – semifinalist WWCC 2008
5. Polgar Judit (HUN) 2709,50 - Oct 07 & 08
6. Polgar Zsuzsa (USA) 2577,00 - Oct 07 & 08
7. Xie Jun (CHN) 2574,00 - Oct 07 & 08
8. Zhao Xue (CHN) 2524,00 - Oct 07 & 08
9. Sebag Marie (FRA) 2521,00 - Oct 07 & 08
10. Zhu Chen (QAT) 2513,50 - Oct 07 & 0811.
President’s nominee12.
President’s nominee13.
Host city nominee14.
Host city nominee15.
Host city nominee16.
Host city nominee17.
Host city nominee18.
Host city nominee
1st reserve by rating: Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL) 2505,50 - Oct 07 & 08
2nd reserve by rating: Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS) 2502,50 - Oct 07 & 08
3rd reserve by rating: Chiburdanidze Maia (GEO) 2494,50 - Oct 07 & 08
This event is supposed to take place as follows (quoted from SP's blog):
Dear qualifiers of the Women's Grand-Prix,
The exact dates for Istanbul 2009 are from 6 March (arrivals) to 21 March (departures), as confirmed below by the Turkish Chess Federation.
Best regards,
George Mastrokoukos
FIDE - World Chess Federation
9 Syggrou Ave., 11743 Athens / Greece
Unfortunately, the 2009 Individual European Women's Chess Championship is scheduled to take place over the same time period in St. Petersburg, Russia (March 7 - March 21, 2009).
Which players who qualify to for the Ataturk Tournament, which last year was a fab event for the ladies, will opt, instead, to play in the European Women's Chess Championship?
Will substitute players be added as players drop out - I assume so - but which players? Where is the official website? Where is the final players' list?
I am fairly confident that neither of the GMs Polgar will play in this event. After that - who knows? What are the prizes? What are the other events in this Women's Grand Prix??? Are there ANY?
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