2010 Women's World Chess Championship

Here is the list of the 64 players - after reviewing the regulations, it appears these are based on events from 2008 and 2009, so I must keep that in mind when I do future bitching about the field of players:

Tnmt Rank	Name	Country	Title	W_title	Rating
1	Kosteniuk, Alexandra	RUS	g	wg	2507
2	Koneru, Humpy	IND	g	wg	2600
3	Hou, Yifan	CHN	g	wg	2591
4	Kosintseva, Tatiana	RUS	g	wg	2581
5	Dzagnidze, Nana	GEO	g	wg	2551
6	Stefanova, Antoaneta	BUL	g		2548
7	Muzychuk, Anna	SLO	m	wg	2530
8	Cramling, Pia	SWE	g		2526
9	Harika, Dronavalli	IND	m	wg	2525
10	Ju, Wenjun	CHN	wg	wg	2524
11	Lahno, Kateryna	UKR	g	wg	2522
12	Cmilyte, Viktorija	LTU	g	wg	2514
13	Chiburdanidze, Maia	GEO	g	wm	2502
14	Socko, Monika	POL	g	wg	2495
15	Sebag, Marie	FRA	g	wg	2494
16	Ruan, Lufei	CHN	wg	wg	2480
17	Mkrtchian, Lilit	ARM	m	wg	2479
18	Zatonskih, Anna	USA	m	wg	2478
19	Zhu, Chen	QAT	g		2477
20	Zhao, Xue	CHN	g	wg	2474
21	Paehtz, Elisabeth	GER	m	wg	2474
22	Hoang Thanh Trang	HUN	g	wg	2473
23	Pogonina, Natalija	RUS	wg	wg	2472
24	Danielian, Elina	ARM	g	wg	2466
25	Muzychuk, Mariya	UKR	m	wg	2462
26	Shen, Yang	CHN	wg	wg	2461
27	Ushenina, Anna	UKR	m	wg	2460
28	Skripchenko, Almira	FRA	m	wg	2460
29	Dembo, Yelena	GRE	m	wg	2454
30	Zhukova, Natalia	UKR	g	wg	2447
31	Rajlich, Iweta	POL	m	wg	2446
32	Turova, Irina	RUS	m	wg	2439
33	Khukhashvili, Sopiko	GEO	m	wg	2430
34	Houska, Jovanka	ENG	m	wg	2421
35	Romanko, Marina	RUS	m	wg	2414
36	Munguntuul, Batkhuyag	MGL	m	wg	2409
37	Foisor, Cristina-Adela	ROU	m	wg	2403
38	Huang, Qian	CHN	wg	wg	2402
39	Ovod, Evgenija	RUS	m	wg	2387
40	Cori T., Deysi	PER	wg	wg	2384
41	Shadrina, Tatiana	RUS	wg	wg	2384
42	Kovanova, Baira	RUS	wg	wg	2380
43	Ding, Yixin	CHN	wg	wg	2370
44	Zawadzka, Jolanta	POL	wg	wg	2368
45	Fierro Baquero, Martha L.	ECU	m	wg	2363
46	Muminova, Nafisa	UZB	wm	wm	2360
47	Lomineishvili, Maia	GEO	m	wg	2347
48	Zhang, Xiaowen	CHN	wg	wg	2339
49	Baginskaite, Camilla	USA	wg	wg	2336
50	Vasilevich, Irina	RUS	m	wg	2333
51	Soumya, Swaminathan	IND	wg	wg	2332
52	Meenakshi Subbaraman	IND	wg	wg	2328
53	Demina, Julia	RUS	wg	wg	2323
54	Ozturk, Kubra	TUR	wm	wm	2264
55	Caoili, Arianne	AUS	wm	wm	2242
56	Nadig, Kruttika	IND	wg	wg	2230
57	Yildiz, Betul Cemre	TUR	wm	wm	2225
58	Zuriel, Marisa	ARG	wm	wm	2208
59	Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid Y	PER	wf	wf	2154
60	Kagramanov, Dina	CAN	wm	wm	2101
61	Mona, Khaled	EGY	wg	wg	2093
62	Heredia Serrano, Carla	ECU	wm	wm	2087
63	Greeff, Melissa	RSA	wg	wg	2082
64	Mezioud, Amina	ALG	wm	wm	2029

I will be rooting for USA's IM Anna Zatonskih who, I believe, qualified by virtue of being the 2009 U.S. Women's Chess Champion.  FIDE is always behind the curve, never ahead of it.  The players for the 2010 title are not the current best female players in the world.

Aside from the fact that the knock-out format has been totally discredited as a way to determine a chess champion and in the Men's Cycle - oh, excuse me, the Open Cycle - it has not been used for years - this will be a nice way for players such as Amina Mezioud of Algeria to take home a check for playing one game of chess - minus FIDE's 20% cut, of course.

Here is the prize structure:

3. 9. Prizes for the Women's World Championship
3. 9. 1. Prize list
1st round 32 losers x 3.750 = 120.000
2nd round 16 losers x 5.500 = 88.000
3rd round 8 losers x 8.000 = 64.000
4th round 4 losers x 12.000 = 48.000
5th round 2 losers x 20.000 = 40.000
6th round 1 loser x 30.000 = 30.000
Women's World Champion = 60.000

TOTAL: 450.000 USD
3. 9. 2. A payment of 20% from the above prize fund shall be made to FI?DE.

If you are interested, you can find all the FIDE rules and regulations governing the Women's World Chess Championship here - for as long as the link lasts (it's FIDE, it won't last very long).   Excerpted portions:

3. Women's World Chess Championship 2010
3. 1. Qualifiers. There are 64 qualifiers:

1. The Women's World Champion, runner-up and semi-finalists of the previous Women's World Championship (4 players)
2. The World Junior Girl Champions U-20 of 2008 & 2009. (2 players)
3. The five best rated players from the average of the FIDE rating lists of July 2008 and January 2009 (5 players).
4. Fifty-one qualifiers from the Women's Continental Championships and Zones (51 players).
5. Two nominees of the FIDE President (2 players).

3. 1. 1. Replacements. Women's World Champion, semi-finalists of the previous women's world championship, World Junior Girl U-20 Champions and rated players can be replaced only from the rating list. Continental and Zonal qualifiers will be replaced from their respective events, except that in the Zonal Tournament the replacement must have scored at least 50% of the maximum possible score. Otherwise the place passes to the Continental Championship.

3. 1. 2. For the purpose of deciding the 5 rated players-qualifiers, as well as any replacements, the average from the following lists will be used: rating lists of July 2008 and January 2009 divided by 2. In case of equality two decimals will be taken into consideration. If the numbers are still equal then the number of games from the two periods shall be decisive. That means the player with the greater number of games shall qualify. If the numbers are still equal then the January 2008 list shall be decisive. If the Elo in this list is still the same, the player with the greater number of games in this list will qualify.

3. 1. 3. Players who appear in the inactive list in both July 2008 and January 2009 lists will not be able to qualify as a rated player. If the player is inactive in one list but appears in the other, then the rating that is published shall be taken as the average.

3. 1. 4. The list of qualified players and the reserves will be published on the FIDE web site.

3. 2. Tournament format

3. 2. 1 There shall be five (5) rounds of matches, comprising two (2) games per round, with the winners progressing to the next round. The 6th round (final round) shall be played over four (4) games and the winner will be declared Women's World Champion.

Round 1: there shall be 64 players
Round 2: there shall be 32 players
Round 3: there shall be 16 players
Round 4: there shall be 8 players
Round 5: there shall be 4 players
Round 6: there shall be 2 players
3. 2. 2. Schedule of the Women's World Championship

Opening Ceremony/Players` meeting 1 day
Round 1: 2 days play 2 days
+ tiebreaks 1 day
Round 2: 2 days play 2 days
+ tiebreaks 1 day
Round 3: 2 days play 2 days
+ tiebreaks 1 day
Round 4: 2 days play 2 days
+ tiebreaks 1 day
Round 5: 2 days play 2 days
+ tiebreaks 1 day
Free Day 1 day free 1 day
Round 6: 4 days play 4 days
+ tiebreaks 1 day
Closing Ceremony 1 day
TOTAL 23 days

Yeah, it's in a Muslim country and it's over Christmas.  Sucks big time.  FIDE has such sensibilities...