India’s highest-ever rated woman chess player and only World Chess title challenger Koneru Humpy will begin a new quest at the sixth Women’s Chess Grand Prix 2011-12 cycle on September 15. The sixth in the series is a round-robin event and runs from September 15-29 in Ankara, Turkey. Reigning women’s world chess champion Hou Yifan won the first two women’s chess grand prix events in the series in Rostov and Shenzen. Zhao Xue of China won the third in Nalchik. Konery Humpy and Anna Muzychuk were joint winners in Kazan, while Hou Yifan won again in Jermuk.
The games begin on September 16 and would be broadcast live on the official website.
The players include:Muzychuk Anna GM 2606Koneru Humpy GM 2593Zhao Xue GM 2549Ju Wenjun WGM 2528Kosintseva Tatiana GM 2524Cmilyte Viktorija GM 2520Stefanova Antoaneta GM 2502Ruan Lufei WGM 2492Socko Monika GM 2463Munguntuul Batkhuyag IM 2434Yildiz Betul Cemre WGM 2341Ozturk Kubra WGM 2294
The FIDE Women’s Grand Prix is a series of elite tournaments being organised by FIDE and Global Chess. It includes six stages with the winner of each tournament receiving 6,500 euros out of a prize fund of 40,000 euros and the overall winner of the series will win a further 15,000 euros at the end of the series.
The winner of the overall Grand Prix series also gets a chance to challenger the world champion. In this case, Hou Yifan has already earned that chance if she were to lose her title later this year!
Ankara (historically known as Angora) is the capital of Turkey and the country’s second largest city after Istanbul. The city has a mean elevation of 938 meters. Centrally located in Anatolia, Ankara is an important commercial and industrial city. It is the center of the Turkish Government, and houses all foreign embassies. It is an important crossroads of trade, strategically located at the centre of Turkey’s highway and railway networks, and serves as the marketing centre for the surrounding agricultural area.
