FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2015–16
The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2015–16 was a series of five chess tournaments exclusively for women, which determined one player to play in the Women's World Chess Championship Match 2018, a 10-game match against the knockout world champion.
This was the fourth cycle of the tournament series. Top ranked player was Hou Yifan, who won the previous three editions of the Grand Prix, but had withdrawn participation after playing in the first tournament. The overall Grand Prix was won by Chinese player Ju Wenjun, who overtook Koneru Humpy at the last tournament. Koneru Humpy thereby finished overall runner-up for the fourth time.
Format
Originally the Grand Prix was scheduled as a 4-event tour. However, at the March 2016 FIDE Presidential Board meeting, a fifth event was then added, which replaced the Women's Knockout championship. Sixteen women were selected to compete in these tournaments, though with the expansion the total became twenty, along with extras to replace the withdrawn Hou Yifan. Each player agrees to a contract to participate in exactly three of these tournaments. The players must rank their preference of tournaments once the final list of host cities is announced and the dates are allocated to each host city.Each tournament is a 12-player, single round-robin tournament. In each round players score 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand Prix points were then allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament: 160 grand prix points for first place, 130 for second place, 110 for third place, and then 90 down to 10 points by increments of 10. In case of a tie in points the Grand Prix points are shared evenly by the tied players.
Players only count their three best tournament results. The player with the most Grand Prix points is the winner. FIDE reserved the right to change locations and dates and increase the tournaments to six and players to eighteen, each player in four tournaments. Eventually they expanded the Grand Prix but not in the contractual manner specified, deciding to add a fifth stop at their Moscow presidential meeting, with approximately 20 players in all taking part, keeping 3 tournaments per player.
Players and qualification
Players invited base on qualifying criteria were:- The four semi-finalists of the Women's World Chess Championship 2015:
- The six highest ranked players :
- Hou Yifan
- Koneru Humpy
- Nana Dzagnidze
- Ju Wenjun
- Anna Muzychuk
- Valentina Gunina
- Two FIDE presidential nominees
- Five organizer nominees:
- Other players appearing in tournaments:
- Two players appearing only one tournament:
Prize money and Grand Prix points
The prize money for the single tournaments and the overall series stayed the same as the previous year, that is €60,000 per single Grand Prix and €90,000 for the overall Grand Prix finish.Place | Single Grand Prix event | Overall standings | Grand Prix points |
1 | €10,000 | €25,000 | 160 |
2 | €8,250 | €20,000 | 130 |
3 | €6,750 | €15,000 | 110 |
4 | €5,750 | €10,000 | 90 |
5 | €5,000 | €7,500 | 80 |
6 | €4,500 | €5,500 | 70 |
7 | €4,250 | €4,000 | 60 |
8 | €4,000 | €3,000 | 50 |
9 | €3,250 | – | 40 |
10 | €3,000 | – | 30 |
11 | €2,750 | – | 20 |
12 | €2,500 | – | 10 |
Tiebreaks
With the objective of determining a clear, single winner to play in the Challenger Match and in the case of the top two or more players having equal cumulative points, the following criteria will be utilized to decide the overall winner:- Number of actual game result points scored in the three tournaments.
- Number of first places.
- Number of second places.
- Number of wins.
- Drawing of lots.
Schedule
No. | Host city | Date | Winner | Points |
1 | Monte Carlo, Monaco | 2–16 October 2015 | 9/11 | |
2 | Tehran, Iran | 10–24 February 2016 | 7.5/11 | |
3 | Batumi, Georgia | 19 April – 3 May 2016 | 7.5/11 | |
4 | Chengdu, China | 1 – 15 July 2016 | 7/11 7/11 | |
5 | Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia | 18 November – 2 December 2016 | 7.5/11 |
Events crosstables
Monaco 2015
Tehran 2016
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh achieved a 9-game GM norm, her first one.Batumi 2016
Chengdu 2016
Khanty-Mansiysk 2016
Grand Prix standings
At the third tournament it was mentioned top ranked Hou Yifan had withdrawn from the Grand-Prix. Koneru Humpy was leading the table after four tournaments. After winning in the tenth round of the last tournament, Ju Wenjun secured the overall Grand Prix win.Rank | Player | Sep.2015 Rating | Monte Carlo | Tehran | Batumi | Chengdu | Khanty- Mansiysk | Total |
1 | 2542 | 160 | 93⅓ | 160 | 413⅓ | |||
2 | 2578 | 120 | 70 | 145 | 335 | |||
3 | 2529 | 45 | 160 | 82 | 287 | |||
4 | 2530 | 65 | 130 | 82 | 277 | |||
5 | 2508 | 45 | 145 | 82 | 272 | |||
6 | 2524 | 120 | 70 | 60 | 250 | |||
7 | 2500 | 15 | 100 | 130 | 245 | |||
8 | 2549 | 30 | 100 | 93⅓ | 223⅓ | |||
9 | 2528 | 120 | 40 | 60 | 220 | |||
10 | 2397 | 10 | 120 | 82 | 212 | |||
11 | 2573 | 50 | 85 | 70 | 205 | |||
12 | 2445 | 85 | 85 | 25 | 195'' | |||
13 | 2500 | 65 | 15 | 93⅓ | 173⅓ | |||
14 | 2671 | 160 | 160 | |||||
15 | 2483 | 40 | 35 | 82 | 157 | |||
16 | 2482 | 30 | 60 | 50 | 140 | |||
17 | 2513 | 85 | 30 | 10 | 125 | |||
18 | 2441 | 30 | 70 | 10 | 110 | |||
19 | 2502 | 10 | 60 | 40 | 110 | |||
20 | 2463 | 40 | 35 | 25 | 100 | |||
21 | 2474 | 20 | 20 | |||||
21 | 2492 | 20 | 20 |