Women's World Chess Championship 2017

The Women's World Chess Championship 2017 is an upcoming 64-player knock-out tournament, to decide a new women's world chess champion.

The tournament was originally placed on the FIDE Calendar for 11 to 31 October 2016. However, the March 2016 meeting of the FIDE Presidential Board ultimately postponed the event to 2017 due to a lack of organizer, replacing it inter alia by a fifth Grand Prix event in Khanty-Mansiysk.[1][2] Hou Yifan, the reigning women's world champion and top ranked female player, decided not to enter the tournament in any event because of dissatisfaction with FIDE's Women's World Championship system.[3]

At the FIDE General Assembly during the Baku Chess Olympiad in September 2016, the organizational rights to the event were awarded to Iran, who will hold the Championship in Tehran from 10 February to 5 March 2017.[4]

Hosting

The original agenda for the General Assembly made no explicit mention of Iran, only indicating that the event had been postponed until 2017 due to the lack of an organizer,[2] similar to the situations in 2014 and 2015. When the agenda item (5.20.7) for Women's World Championship came up for discussion in Baku, Iran offered to host the event, and after a brief discussion of the applicable dress code, none of the 159 attending delegates objected.[5][6] Only when FIDE published the General Assembly decisions two weeks later did even the existence of the Iran offer (let alone its awarding) become widely known, and the issue rapidly became explosive, in part due to the social media activity of Nigel Short,[7] who alternatively claimed that awarding the event to Iran was against FIDE Statutes or the Code of Ethics (or founding Principles) of the International Olympic Committee. The main alternative to accepting the offer would have been to postpone any decision until the next FIDE Presidential Board meeting, likely in November.

Nazi Paikidze, who qualified by finishing tied for 2nd in the 2015 USA Women's Championship, is the most prominent person (to date) to have protested FIDE's decision to allow Iran to host the event. Through the media she has announced that she will not participate most particularly because of Iran's dress code requiring women to wear a hijab,[8] though initially she also secondarily mentioned the risks to Americans and other foreigners of being detained in Iran because of their nationality.[7] (This latter could be compared to the troubles in 2008 concerning the Nalchik locale, where six women from Georgia were absent, joined by five others.)[9] In a later Change.org petition she included a third item, namely that there could be speech restrictions on women.[10]

Chess, like other sports, has had a degree of controversy regarding women's attire. A statement from FIDE Press Officer Anastasiya Karlovich was published at Susan Polgar's Chess Daily News site, indicating that FIDE has not received any official complaints to date (including from prior women's events held in Iran), but that they would be reviewing all possible solutions for the players’ comfort and will discuss all the issues with the organizers in Iran during meetings in the next few weeks.[5] She also confirmed that participants and other attendees would be required to observe the local laws in Iran.[11][12] Polgar has requested that concerned participants contact the FIDE Women's Commission, of which she is co-chair.[13] She also took issue with the way the media coverage had unfolded, with particularly strong words against Nigel Short and the Daily Telegraph.[14]

Emil Sutovsky, the president of the Association of Chess Professionals (ACP), hosted discussions at his Facebook page on the matter, and wrote an official letter to FIDE.[15] He also noted that while he has talked to at least half the participants and the vast majority does not want to boycott, the ACP would respect the rights of others too.[16] Natalia Zhukova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Muzychuk, and Elisabeth Paehtz have all made public comments to Sutovsky, but none to the degree of Nazi Paikidze. Sutovsky was willing to entertain Nigel Short's claims regarding the illegality of FIDE's actions, but simultaneously would not pursue them (either personally or as ACP president) until a proper legal argument was made on the matter.

ChessBase India interviewed two of the three qualifiers from that country (Dronavalli Harika and Humpy Koneru), each of whom has played in Iran previously.[17] They indicated a degree of awkwardness and discomfort with the physical aspects of the headscarf while playing (as had Zhukova), but declared the World Championship itself to be more important. The Guardian featured 2015 Asian Women's Continental Champion Mitra Hejazipour (of Iran) in an article, describing how a boycott could harm Iranian women's sport.[18] Later articles quoted Kosteniuk and Koneru expanding on their views, with former noting that even taking exercise (fitness) in Iran can be difficult for a woman.[16][19]

Iranian players also stated that a boycott would not be beneficial to Iranian women.[20]

Qualified participants

The players are selected by five different means: reaching the semi-finals of the most recent knock-out Women's World Championship, junior championships, rating, zonal or continental chess championships, and FIDE wildcards.[21]

Qualified are: (note, no guarantee of the correctness of this information is given, FIDE will eventually make an official announcement)

A. World Champion, runner-up and 2 semi-finalists from Women's World Chess Championship 2015

B. 2014 and 2015 Girls' Junior Champion

C. 5 highest rated players (played over 30 rated games) from average rating February 2015 to January 2016[24]

Viktoria Cmilyte averaged 2533.33 but only played 9 games. Similarly Kateryna Lagno averaged 2528.08 but only played 20 games. Next in line would be Valentina Gunina, averaging 2526.83 over 86 games.

D. 51 players from Women's Continental and Zonal qualifiers

D1. For Europe Top 14 of 2014 and 2015 of European Championship not already qualified (28)[25][26]

The next alternate for E14 is Elisabeth Paehtz who is E15-qualified anyway, so Sofio Gvetadze (sometimes spelled as Sopio) as next in E15 would move up in either case.

D2. Asia (12): Asian champions

Zonal champions

D3. Americas (8):

D4. Africa (3): (assuming using 2015 results is correct)[39]

E. 2 FIDE nominees: (not yet announced)

Note: Unlike comparable tournaments open to all (Candidates Tournament and Chess World Cup), there are no "sponsor nominees" in Women's World Chess Championship. Iranian news suggests that Atousa Pourkashiyan and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh will receive the FIDE nominee spots.[40]

FIDE discussions

A discussion of redivisioning the qualifiers was made at the September 2015 FIDE Executive Board meeting, with the Americas wanting an extra spot, though also it was suggested that Asia should get more representation. Granting them wildcards was seen as a difficult solution, as the Romanian Mihaela Sandu had requested one, though her 2300 rating (now 2207) was significantly lower than previous wildcard recipients.[41]

Prize money

The prize money is as it has been since 2001 for knock-out Women's World Chess Championship, namely (Regulation 3.9): nominally 3,750 US dollars for first round losers, 5,500 for second, 8,000 for third, 12,000 for fourth, 20,000 for losing semifinalists, 30,000 for runner-up, and 60,000 for champion ($450,000 overall), with 20% of such sums being taken by FIDE.[21] All players pay their own costs (travel, accommodation and meals) for the duration (Regulation 3.3.8). Comparatively, first place in a FIDE Women's Grand Prix event is 10,000 euros (plus chances in overall standings), while Nazi Paikidze won $25,000 for first place in the 2016 USA Women's Chess Championship.[42]

References

  1. ↑ March 2016 FIDE PB decisions (1PB-2016/19 and 1PB-2016/14).
  2. 1 2 FIDE General Assembly Agenda (5.20.7)
  3. ↑ "Why Hou Yifan has dropped out of the cycle". 20 May 2016. Retrieved 21 May 2016.
  4. ↑ FIDE General Assembly decision GA-2016/31
  5. 1 2 Official Statement From FIDE About The Women's World Championship in Iran (ChessDailyNews)
  6. ↑ Kevin Bonham (Twitter, AUS)
  7. 1 2 World Chess uproar (Daily Mail)
  8. ↑ I'd Rather Sacrifice My Career than be Forced To Wear a Hijab (Naki Paikidze)
  9. ↑ Women's World Championship: Georgian players withdraw (ChessBase)
  10. ↑ Speech restrictions on sporting participants are often mandated, for instance Rule 40 at the Olympics, conduct clauses in contracts as with Steve Clevenger, and perhaps a close analogue would be the American Contract Bridge League having a dispute against some of its representatives at the 2007 World Bridge Championships, for using this as a platform to display a political message. However, Paikidze is noting that women have been arrested in Iran for speaking out on women's rights, for instance Maryam Majd.
  11. ↑ UK Foreign Travel Advice for Iran (cited by Karlovich).
  12. ↑ Some differentiation between a headscarf and a hijab was made in previous comments by Karlovich, as the latter word is sometimes used by Muslims to describe only what a believer wears, while the former is simply what the dress code requires. Women are also expected to cover their arms in Iran, and both men and women should cover their legs.
  13. ↑ My Response to CNN, Regarding the Upcoming Women's World Championship (Susan Polgar)
  14. ↑ Media Made Up Narratives (Chess Daily News)
  15. ↑ Post 1 (Russian), Post 2, Post 3
  16. 1 2 Athletes staged a boycott against hijab (SportExpress, Russian)]
  17. ↑ Humpy and Harika in Iran (ChessBase)
  18. ↑ Boycott of Women's World Chess Championship (Guardian)
  19. ↑ Iran’s hijab law triggers scepticism among players before World Chess Championship (Indian Express)
  20. ↑ http://www.firstpost.com/sports/iranian-chess-players-insist-hijab-no-reason-for-boycott-of-womens-world-championship-3045716.html
  21. 1 2 "Regulations for the Women`s World Chess Championship Cycle". FIDE. Retrieved 14 February 2016.
  22. ↑ Winners of World Junior Chess Championship 2014 (FIDE)
  23. ↑ Winners of World Junior Chess Championship 2015 (FIDE)
  24. ↑ FIDE Ratings (monthly lists)
  25. ↑ http://chess-results.com/tnr136442.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=11&flag=30&wi=821
  26. ↑ http://chess-results.com/tnr164130.aspx?lan=1&art=1&rd=11&turdet=YES&flag=30&wi=984
  27. ↑ Idani Pouya, Zhu Chen Win Zone 3.1
  28. ↑ Asian Zonal 3.2 Women Chess Championship-2015
  29. ↑ Le Quang Liem, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and Pham Le Thao Nguyen qualify for World Chess Championships
  30. ↑ Dinara Saduakassova – the Kazakh prodigy
  31. ↑ 2015 Women's world champion chess championship Zonal 3.5
  32. ↑ Oceania Zone 3.6 Championship Sydney (AUS) July 3 - 10, 2015
  33. ↑ RAMRATNA 42ND NATIONAL WOMEN PREMIER CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP 2015
  34. 1 2 3 USA Women's Championship 2015
  35. ↑ Qiyu Zhou wins Canadian Women's Championship (Chess Daily News)
  36. ↑ Women's Zonal Z2.3 (2015)
  37. 1 2 Deysi Cori is Amercian Continential Champion (Chessdom)
  38. ↑ Torneo Zonal Femenino 2.5 FIDE "Marcel Duchamp"
  39. ↑ 2015 African Individual Chess Championships (Chess-Results)
  40. ↑ Sokolov appointed Iran's women chess team coach (Tehran Times)
  41. ↑ FIDE 2015 Executive Board Minutes, Section 5.21
  42. ↑ 2016 US Women's Championship overview (2016)

External links

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