Women's World Chess Championships Round 1 Pairings

Women's World Champion Hou Yifan looking to keep her title in 2012-3

Here are the round 1 pairings for the 2012 Women's World Chess Championships (wiki), which will take place on November 9 - December 3, 2012 in Khanty-Mansisyk, Russia.  Each "round" of this 64-player knockout tournament will consist of two games (one white, one black)against each opponent until Round 6, where 4 games are played.  In the case of a tie, rapid games will be played to determine who will move on.

The winner will be the Woman's World Champion, who will then defend the title against current champion GM Hou Yifan in 2013.  If Hou Yifan wins, GM Humpy Koneru will be the challenger.

The Player Name, their FIDE Federation (nation), Qualification Method (Q), and Opponent are noted in the table below.

Player	Fed	FIDE	Q	V.	Player	Fed	FIDE	Q
GM Hou Yifan	CHN	2606	A	1	WIM S D Ranasinghe	SRI	1821	H
GM Humpy Koneru	IND	2610	B	2	WIM Denise Frick	RSA	1871	J
GM Anna Muzychuk	SLO	2586	C	3	WIM Amina Mezioud	ALG	2055	J
GM Zhao Xue	CHN	2565	D	4	WIM Natalia Khoudgarian	CAN	2138	H
GM Kateryna Lahno	UKR	2553	E	5	WGM Khaled Mona	EGY	2155	J
GM N. Kosintseva	RUS	2539	E	6	WIM Melissa C. Gomez	COL	2159	H
GM Viktorija Cmilyte	LTU	2524	E	7	WFM Ingrid Fernandez	PER	2175	H
GM Marie Sebag	FRA	2521	E	8	IM Irina Berezina	AUS	2190	I
IM Valentina Gunina	RUS	2517	G	9	WGM Xiaobing Gu	CHN	2209	I
GM Pia Cramling	SWE	2516	E	10	WIM Shayesteh G. Pour	IRI	2219	I
GM Tatiana Kosintseva	RUS	2515	E	11	WIM Madina Davletbayeva	KAZ	2220	I
GM Harika Dronavalli	IND	2512	I	12	WGM S. Swaminathan	IND	2251	I
IM Bela Kohtenashvili	GEO	2504	E	13	WGM Maritza A. Robaina	CUB	2273	H
GM Alexandra Kosteniuk	RUS	2501	G	14	WGM Tatev Abrahamyan	USA	2304	H
WGM Wenjun Ju	CHN	2501	I	15	WGM A. Pourkashiyan	IRI	2321	I
GM Antoaneta Stefanova	BUL	2491	E	16	IM Marina Romanko	RUS	2355	E
GM Zhu Chen	QAT	2491	G	17	WGM Nast. Ziaziulkina	BLR	2367	E
IM Anna Zatonskih	USA	2489	H	18	IM Carolina Lujan	ARG	2369	H
WGM Natalia Pogonina	RUS	2478	E	19	IM Svetlana Matveeva	RUS	2377	E
IM Mariya Muzychuk	UKR	2476	E	20	IM Cristina-Adela Foisor	ROU	2383	E
GM Elina Danielian	ARM	2476	E	21	IM Sopiko Khukhashvili	GEO	2383	E
GM Thanh Trang Hoang	HUN	2470	E	22	IM Evgenija Ovod	RUS	2384	E
IM Irina Krush	USA	2470	H	23	IM Ruofan Li	SIN	2394	I
IM Alisa Galliamova	RUS	2468	G	24	IM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya	RUS	2409	E
WGM Olga Girya	RUS	2467	K	25	IM Iweta Rajlich	POL	2410	E
WGM Qian Huang	CHN	2465	I	26	WGM Yang Shen	CHN	2413	I
IM Lilit Mkrtchian	ARM	2457	E	27	GM Ketevan Arakh.-Grant	SCO	2414	E
IM Lela Javakhishvili	GEO	2455	E	28	IM Anastasia Bodnaruk	RUS	2415	E
IM Yelena Dembo	GRE	2454	E	29	IM Nino Khurtsidze	GEO	2428	E
IM Anna Ushenina	UKR	2452	G	30	WGM Deysi T. Cori	PER	2429	F
GM Natalia Zhukova	UKR	2451	E	31	WGM Qi Guo	CHN	2432	K
GM Monika Socko	POL	2445	E	32	IM Almira Skripchenko	FRA	2441	G

Qualification Method (Q):

A - Current Women's World Champion (1)

B - 2011 Women's World Championship Finalist (1)

C - 2011 World Girls Junior U20 Champion (1)

D - 2010 Women's World Championship Semi-Finalist (1)

E - 2010 and 2011 European Women's Chess Championships (28)

F - 2010 World Girls Junior U20 Champion (1)

G - FIDE Rating List (average of July 2011, Jan. 2012) (6)

H - Players from the Americas (8)

I - Players from Asia/Ocenia (12)

J - 2011 African Women's Chess Championship (3)

K - Nominees from the FIDE President (Wild Cards) (2)

Notable Absentees:

#1 Woman GM Judit Polgar (2699), who never plays in women events

#7 GM Nana Dzagnidze (2538)

#16  GM Maia Chiburdanidze (2500), who was the Woman's World Champion from 1978-1991, but is retired

#24 WGM Ruan Lufei (2479), who was the 2010 Finalist, but is a student at Carnegie Mellon

Total Prize Fund = €430,000
Payouts:
Eliminated in the 1st round (32) - €3,750
Eliminated in the 2nd round (16) - €5,500
Eliminated in the 3rd round (8) - €8,000
Eliminated in the 4th round (quarter-finals) (4) - €12,000
Eliminated in the 5th round (semi-finals) (2) - €20,000
Eliminated in the 6th round (2nd place) (1) - €30,000
Winner (1) - €40,000

Stay posted for a report for every round of the tournament.