The opening ceremony of the Women’s World Chess Championship took place at the Espinas Palace Hotel at 6 pm on 10th of February.
The ceremony was attended by FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the President of Moldova, President of Moldovan Chess Federation Igor Dodon and Minister of Youth Affairs and Sports of Iran Masoud Soltanifar.
The drawing of colors ceremony took place and Ms. Ju Wenjun picked white. Live games with analysis.
The first five rounds consist of two games with 90 moves per 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game with bonus 30 seconds per each move. The final match consists of four games.
The total prize fund of the Championship is US $450,000. Every player gets 3750$, those who make it to round two get 5500$, for round three it is 8000$, round four 12,000$, round five (semifinals) 20,000$, the silver medalist 30,000$, and the winner 60,000$.
Schedule: Round 1 – February 11-13, Round 2 – February 14-16, Round 3 – February 17-19, Quarterfinals – February 20-22, Semifinals – February 23-25, Finals – February 27 – 3 March. Closing ceremony – 4th of March. February 26 is a day off. All games start at 1500h local time.
After the WWCC opening ceremony the FIDE President together with President of Moldova Igor Dodon met with the Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs of Iran Masoud Soltanifar. At the meeting also present were FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg, President of Iranian Chess Federation Mehrdad Pahlevanzadeh, and Director of FIDE representative office in Russia Berik Balgabaev.
The Iranian Minister warmly welcomed the Moldovan President and expressed a great interest in establishing the bilateral cooperation. Igor Dodon said that with great interest he would learn the Iranian experience of chess development and organising the world events and he’d try to hold such a tournament in his country in the nearest future.
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