2016 FIDE Women's World Chess Championship Match

How did I miss this?  Maybe because I find it insulting and ridiculous, but female chessplayers are as hungry for decent money to be made as male chessplayers are, so I don't fault the players for buying into the continuation of an utterly sexist structure that condemns female players to the eternal ELO ghetto of women's chess.

FIDE came up with a sponsor in Lviv, Ukraine.  The "match" features GM Mariya Muzychuk versus defending champion GM Hou Yifan.

Here's the official website.  Excellent coverage at the Week in Chess and Chessdom. You can find full games, photos, and analysis at these (and other) websites and Chessdom has live coverage.

March 2 - 18, 2016.

Six games have already been played and Yifan leads 4.0 to 2.0 with four more games to go.  Table below from The Week in Chess:

WCh Women Lviv
Muzychuk, Mariya	-	Hou, Yifan	½-½	31	C50	Giuoco Piano
Hou, Yifan	-	Muzychuk, Mariya	1-0	32	C80	Ruy Lopez Open
Muzychuk, Mariya	-	Hou, Yifan	½-½	36	E01	Catalan
Hou, Yifan	-	Muzychuk, Mariya	½-½	21	C83	Ruy Lopez Open
Hou, Yifan	-	Muzychuk, Mariya	½-½	33	A11	Reti Opening
Muzychuk, Mariya	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	38	C50	Giuoco Piano

WCh Women Lviv (UKR), 2-18 iii 2016
Name	Ti	NAT	Rtng	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Perf
Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2673	½	1	½	½	½	1	.	.	.	.	4	2679
Muzychuk, Mariya	g	UKR	2554	½	0	½	½	½	0	.	.	.	.	2	2548

The Fat Lady Sang...And I'm Shocked As Hell!

Hola, darlings!

Whew, cut the grass front AND back today, spray painted an old pink (ugh) and white lamp to use on my desk in the family room, and have laundry left to do...  Packers - what the hell?  Had the game in their back pockets at half-time and gave it away, duh. I did not watch the game on t.v. today, I listened to it on the radio as I was doing other things outside on the deck.  Glad I didn't watch!

I have been blogging at my decorating blog, yeah, I know, icky but tough titty, I enjoy it.  I get sick and tired of this chess stuff, sometimes, and I have a mantle/mantel to decorate for autumn that I'm itching to get to -- I'm thinking I will do that tomorrow night after work while I'm watching the season premiere of The Voice on NBC.  I believe the last two episodes from last season's Revenge are on t.v. tonight, woo woo!  Will be nice to refresh my memory prior to the season premiere, that I'm soooo looking forward to.  One of the best shows on t.v. and it's not just because I and about half a million other people want to get revenge on some schmuck or other, nope.  Not at all.  Ha, the very notion...planning, planning, planning...

About that Fat Lady, yeah, she sang the loser's lullaby to the lovely GM Anna Ushenina, who played well with the black pieces but couldn't do jack-crap with the white pieces, losing all three of her games with white!  What the hell is that all about?

GM Hou Yifan sexing it up for the Chinese cameras (not a Caucasian photographer
anywhere to be seen in the photos of the final round, at this event held in CHINA) prior to the start of
the final game.  I mean, come on, what real woman does this in full view of everyone prior to a game?
Leaves a bad taste, ick ick ick, in my mouth. I don't wonder why Ushenina looked mostly disgusted
in her photos throughout this match.
Check out the official website photos, very telling, for one who has eyes to see... 

As for GM Hou Yifan, I was shocked as hell that today's Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (my hometown newspaper) actually ran a piece on her winning of the women's chess champion title.  Holy Hathor!  Must have been a slow news day, maybe not enough people killed at that mall in Kenya by the Islamist pigs. The newspaper did not go so far, however, as to post the article online (I looked for it).  So few of us continue to subscribe to the actual PRINT newspaper these days some junior editor or other probably figured no one would know (or care) that the article was used as a filler and sure was not important enough to be put at the website online.  Yet more disgust from this chess femme. 

Congratulations to GM Hou, and I wish her luck in her studies at university.  I sincerely hope, GM Hou, that once you have your degree, you will get the hell out of the women's ratings ghetto and concentrate on moving up the ranks, the only ranks that count -- playing and defeating male players of equivalent or higher rating than you by declining to play in female-only events.  If you are as good a player as you think, you should be bored with that by now. 

From The Weak Week in Chess, always providing excellent tournament coverage:

WCh Women Taizhou
Ushenina, Anna	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	41	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	½-½	33	B33	Sicilian Sveshnikov
Ushenina, Anna	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	24	E32	Nimzo Indian 4.Qc2
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	½-½	31	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	½-½	61	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Ushenina, Anna	-	Hou, Yifan	0-1	40	E17	Queens Indian
Hou, Yifan	-	Ushenina, Anna	1-0	40	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation

WCh Women Taizhou (CHN), 11 ix 2013
Name	Ti	NAT	Rtng	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	Total	Perf
Hou, Yifan	g	CHN	2609	1	½	1	½	½	1	1	.	.	.	5½	2730
Ushenina, Anna	g	UKR	2500	0	½	0	½	½	0	0	.	.	.	1½	2379

I want to know, how can Hou get such a performance rating by winning three games with white?  Is it just me, or is there something seriously wrong with the way the ratings system is working, when Ushenina gets downgraded for holding three games with black against a supposedly superior chessplayer???  If  Hou is a superior player, should her performance rating now reflect the supposed mediocrity of her opponent and drop down a couple hundred points?  And if Hou is so superior a player, should not Ushenina's performance rating be raised about 150 points to reflect the fact that she drew three games with the black pieces? That is difficult to do, n'est ce pas?  Why is she not getting any credit for this?  Inquiring minds want to know. 

I am happy that both ladies received a decent pay-off, in any event.  Not the millions that the men will receive when they play in THEIR championship, of course.  Tsk tsk.

2013 Chinese Chess Championship

Hola, darlings!  I'll cut right to chase. How the hell did Hou Yifan (the lone female in the championship) do?  She did well.  Hoooray!  The bad news is, she was not playing against the top-rated "western chess" Chinese players in this championship. The Chinese Chess Federation continues to play games, but with a surfeit of good, to very good to excellent chess players that it will continue to pull out of it's magic hat for the next decade or two, they don't give a shit what anyone thinks about IT and will continue to do so.  Such is life.  It sucks, sometimes.   

Final standings cross-table (from Chess-Results.com):

Final Ranking crosstable after 11 Rounds

Rk.		Name	Rtg	FED	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	GM	Wang Yue	2706	CHN	*	0	½	1	1	½	1	0	½	1	1	1	7.5	0.0	38.50	6
2	GM	Ma Qun	2559	CHN	1	*	½	½	½	½	0	½	½	0	1	1	6.0	0.5	32.75	3
3	GM	Li Chao B	2686	CHN	½	½	*	½	1	0	½	0	½	1	1	½	6.0	0.5	32.25	3
4	GM	Hou Yifan	2617	CHN	0	½	½	*	0	½	½	1	1	0	½	1	5.5	3.0	28.50	3
5	GM	Xiu Deshun	2534	CHN	0	½	0	1	*	0	½	1	½	1	0	1	5.5	3.0	28.00	4
6	IM	Wei Yi	2530	CHN	½	½	1	½	1	*	½	0	½	½	½	0	5.5	2.5	31.50	2
7	GM	Bu Xiangzhi	2662	CHN	0	1	½	½	½	½	*	½	½	½	½	½	5.5	2.5	29.50	1
8	GM	Zhao Jun	2589	CHN	1	½	1	0	0	1	½	*	½	½	0	½	5.5	2.0	31.75	3
9	GM	Yu Yangyi	2675	CHN	½	½	½	0	½	½	½	½	*	½	½	1	5.5	2.0	29.25	1
10	GM	Zhou Weiqi	2590	CHN	0	1	0	1	0	½	½	½	½	*	½	½	5.0	0.5	26.75	2
11	GM	Zhou Jianchao	2607	CHN	0	0	0	½	1	½	½	1	½	½	*	½	5.0	0.5	26.25	2
12	GM	Li Shilong	2558	CHN	0	0	½	0	0	1	½	½	0	½	½	*	3.5	0.0	19.00	1

Annotation:
Tie Break1: Direct Encounter (The results of the players in the same point group)
Tie Break2: Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break (with real points)
Tie Break3: The greater number of victories

2012 FIDE Women's World Chess Championship

Koneru Humpy is OUT!  Hou Yifan LOST and has to go to a play-off tomorrow.  Maybe the world is going to end on December 21, 2012 after all...  Players going through to R3 are in bold, Americans in red.  USA's Irina Krush goes into her second play-off round tomorrow; Anna Zatonskih goes into her first play-off.  A lot of play-offs tomorrow, wooo wooo, this is getting good!

Results R2, Game 2:

Name	G1	G2	R1	R2	r3	r4	B1	B2	SD	Tot
Round 2 Match 01
Socko, Monika (POL)	0	1								1
Hou, Yifan (CHN)	1	0								1
Round 2 Match 02
Koneru, Humpy (IND)	0	0								0
Zhukova, Natalia (UKR)	1	1								2
Round 2 Match 03
Ushenina, Anna (UKR)	½	½								1
Muzychuk, Anna (SLO)	½	½								1
Round 2 Match 04
Zhao, Xue (CHN)	1	0								1
Khurtsidze, Nino (GEO)	0	1								1
Round 2 Match 05
Javakhishvili, Lela (GEO)	½	1								1.5
Lahno, Kateryna (UKR)	½	0								0.5
Round 2 Match 06
Kosintseva, Nadezhda (RUS)	½	½								1
Mkrtchian, Lilit (ARM)	½	½								1
Round 2 Match 07
Huang, Qian (CHN)	½	1								1.5
Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU)	½	0								0.5
Round 2 Match 08
Sebag, Marie (FRA)	½	1								1.5
Girya, Olga (RUS)	½	0								0.5
Round 2 Match 09
Galliamova, Alisa (RUS)	½	1								1.5
Gunina, Valentina (RUS)	½	0								0.5
Round 2 Match 10
Cramling, Pia (SWE)	1	0								1
Krush, Irina (USA)	0	1								1
Round 2 Match 11
Hoang, Thanh Trang (HUN)	½	0								0.5
Kosintseva, Tatiana (RUS)	½	1								1.5
Round 2 Match 12
Harika, Dronavalli (IND)	1	½								1.5
Danielian, Elina (ARM)	0	½								0.5
Round 2 Match 13
Muzychuk, Mariya (UKR)	1	½								1.5
Arribas Robaina, Maritza (CUB)	0	½								0.5
Round 2 Match 14
Kosteniuk, Alexandra (RUS)	½	0								0.5
Pogonina, Natalija (RUS)	½	1								1.5
Round 2 Match 15
Zatonskih, Anna (USA)	½	½								1
Ju, Wenjun (CHN)	½	½								1
Round 2 Match 16
Stefanova, Antoaneta (BUL)	½	1								1.5
Zhu, Chen (QAT)	½	0								0.5

2012 FIDE Women's Grand Prix - Jermuk

Despite the Chinese players all losing their final round games, Hou Yifan hung on to take the clear win with 7/11.  Here are the final round results - notice who knocked off the Chinese players:

Round 11 on 2012/07/28 at 15:00
SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
6	IM	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	2417	1 - 0	GM	Zhao Xue	2556	12
7	GM	Kosintseva Nadezhda	2516	1 - 0	WGM	Ruan Lufei	2483	5
8	GM	Lahno Kateryna	2537	1 - 0	GM	Hou Yifan	2617	4
9	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2447	½ - ½	GM	Danielian Elina	2480	3
10	IM	Mkrtchian Lilit	2450	1 - 0	IM	Khurtsidze Nino	2456	2
11	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2518	0 - 1	GM	Koneru Humpy	2598	1

Final standings (from The Week in Chess):

FIDE WGP Jermuk 2012 Jermuk ARM Mon 16th Jul 2012 - Sun 29th Jul 2012 Leading Final Round 11 Standings:
Rk	Name	Ti	FED	Rtg	Pts	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	Hou Yifan	GM	CHN	2617	7.0	0.0	35.75	3.0
2	Kosintseva Nadezhda	GM	RUS	2516	6.5	1.5	36.50	4.5
3	Lahno Kateryna	GM	UKR	2537	6.5	1.5	36.00	3.5
4	Koneru Humpy	GM	IND	2598	6.5	0.0	33.00	3.0
5	Ju Wenjun	WGM	CHN	2518	6.0	1.0	31.25	2.5
6	Ruan Lufei	WGM	CHN	2483	6.0	0.0	29.25	2.0
7	Zhao Xue	GM	CHN	2556	5.5	0.0	29.00	2.5
8	Danielian Elina	GM	ARM	2480	5.0	0.5	27.50	3.0
9	Mkrtchian Lilit	IM	ARM	2450	5.0	0.5	25.25	2.0
10	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	IM	RUS	2417	4.5	0.0	24.50	3.0
11	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	IM	MGL	2447	4.0	0.0	24.00	3.0
12	Khurtsidze Nino	IM	GEO	2456	3.5	0.0	17.50	1.0
12 players

Personal favorites Lahno and Koneru ended up in 3rd and 4th, respectively -- a very good event for Lahno and maybe not so good for Koneru, but she fought back into the top 4 and I give her credit for that. 

There are photographs and interviews galore at the official website, round-by round results and games. 

You can see from the FIDE Women's Grand Prix standings (not including today's results) - and Hou's winning 4 outright - she's the cream of the crop and today's victory cements her position at the top:

FIDE Women Grand Prix standings
Player	Title	ROS	SHE	NAL	KAZ	JER	MAR	Best 3
Hou Yifan	GM	160	160		100			420
Anna Muzychuk	GM	100	130		145			375
Kateryna Lahno	GM	130		80	50			260
Zhao Xue	GM		75	160				235
Viktorija Cmilyte	GM		35	100	100			235
Ju Wenjun	WGM		100	130				230
Tatiana Kosintseva	GM	100		55	60			215
Koneru Humpy	GM	65			145			210
Nadezhda Kosintseva	GM	80		55	35			170
Elina Danielian	GM	45	50		75			170
Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	IM	20	20	100				140
Antoaneta Stefanova	GM	45		55	35			135
Alisa Galliamova	IM	65	*	30	20			115
Ruan Lufei	WGM	30	75					105
Tan Zhongyi	WGM		100					100
Alexandra Kosteniuk	GM	10		10	75			95
Zhu Chen	GM		35	55				90
Munguntuul Batkhuyag	IM		60	20				80
Betul Cemre Yildiz	WGM		10		10			20
Control		850	850	850	850	0	0