Women's World Chess Championship 2001
The Women's World Chess Championship 2001 took place from November 25 to December 14, 2001 in Moscow, Russia. It was won by Zhu Chen, who beat Alexandra Kosteniuk in the final by 5 to 3. The final was tied 2–2 after the classical games and decided in the rapid tie-breaks.
For the second time, the championship took the form of a 64-player knock-out tournament.Participants
The qualified players were seeded by their Elo ratings.
Notable top players not taking part were Judit Polgár, Xie Jun, Wang Lei, Pia Cramling, Koneru Humpy, Qin Kanying, Sofia Polgar, and Viktorija Cmilyte.
Polgár, ranked 1st female and 19th overall in the world, chose instead to participate in the concurrent open event. Reigning champion Xie Jun had put her active career on hold at the time and decided not to defend her title.Qualification paths
- WC: semifinalists of Women's World Chess Championship 2000
- J: World Junior Champion 2000
- R: Rating
- E: European Individual Chess Championship
- AM: American Continental Chess Championship 2001
- AS: Asian Chess Championship
- AF: African Chess Championship 2001
- Z2.1, Z2.2, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1a, Z3.1b, Z3.2a, Z3.2b, Z3.3, Z3.4: Zonal tournaments
- PN: FIDE President nominee
Results
Final Match
Bracket
