Women’s Grand Prix 2011-2012

FIDE announces the Women’s Grand-Prix 2011-2012 which will give qualification to the Women’s World Championship match 2013. The schedule of the 6 events is the following:

1-15 August 2011, Rostov RUSSIA

8-22 September 2011, Shenzhen CHINA

8-23 October 2011, Nalchik RUSSIA

16-30 May 2012, Kazan RUSSIA

16-30 June 2012, Jermuk ARMENIA

16-30 November 2012, Istanbul TURKEY

In total 18 players will participate, 10 qualifiers as per regulations (listed below) plus 6 nominees from the organisers of each tournament (to be announced) plus 2 nominees of the FIDE President (to be announced).

The 10 qualifiers up to now are:

01. Hou, Yifan (World Champion 2010)
02. Ruan, Lufei (finalist world championship 2010)
03. Koneru, Humpy (semi-finalist world championship 2010)
04. Zhao, Xue (semi-finalist world championship 2010)
05. Kosintseva, Tatiana (by rating 2566,00 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
06. Stefanova, Antoaneta (by rating 2553,00 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
07. Kosintseva, Nadezhda (by rating 2551,50 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
08. Muzychuk, Anna (by rating 2528,00 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
09. Lahno, Kateryna (by rating 2526,50 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
10. Cmilyte, Viktorija (by rating 2526,50 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)

The 3 first reserves for any replacements needed:
01. Dzagnidze, Nana (rating 2524,00 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
02. Cramling, Pia (rating 2516,50 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)
03. Harika, Dronavalli (rating 2512,00 / Jul 2010 & Jan 2011)

The full regulations of the Women’s Grand-Prix 2011-2012 are published here:
http://www.fide.com/fide/handbook.html?id=43&view=category