25 February 2009

2009-2010 Women's Grand Prix

I added a page on the 2009-10 FIDE Women's Grand Prix to my index page on the World Championship for Women. For now, it consists primarily of excerpts from two FIDE announcements:-

FIDE's overall plans for the Women's World Championship haven't yet been announced. The 'Regulations' say

The winner of the Grand Prix series at the end of 2010 will play the Women's World Champion in the third quarter of 2011 in a ten game match for the Women's World Championship title.

In Interview with Makropoulos, I quoted FIDE's Deputy President saying

One year, we will have a Champion after the knockout competition, and the next year this Champion will play a match with the winner of the Grand Prix. Thus, the Women's World Championship will be held every year.

That implies a knockout competition in 2010. The last three knockout competitions were played in 2004, 2006, and 2008.

18 February 2009

Zonal Overview

The following table is based on my page for the World Chess Championship Zonals (version: 'Last updated 2007-09-14'). For each cycle it shows the number of events per zone. Like the zonal page itself, it is 'In process & preliminary!', to be used with caution.

The cycle number in the first column is an artificial number that I use internally to group events by cycle. The year corresponding to the World Championship (WCC) is a better reference for comparison with other sources.

Despite the obvious errors in the table -- three events for zone 3 in the 1978 cycle? -- it gives a useful, at-a-glance overview about the evolution of the zonals. I'll redo it after I eliminate the errors.

Cycle Zone
NoWCCΣ*1234567891
0
1
1
1
2
1
3
1
4
1195155              
219548 11111111      
319577 1111111       
419609 111111111     
5196310 121111111     
6196610 1111111111    
7196910 1111111111    
8197210 1111111111    
9197510 1111111111    
10197813 11311111111   
11198111 11111111111   
12198412 11111111121   
13198718 4311111111111 
14199018 3221112111111 
15199323141221112312  2
16199625 14443          
171995PCA
18199721 9651          
19199919 8632          
20200024410622          
21200115 1671          
22200414 2552          
23200518 2682          
24200710 172           

04 February 2009

ChessBase.com Eventlists

There aren't many primary sources for chess news online, and ChessBase.com is one of the few. In addition to round-by-round reports, photos, videos, and interviews, this major resource for chess news is always careful to collect and package the many reports on a single event.

The company doesn't overlook women's events, either.

Thanks, Chessbase!