Women’s Grand Prix Monaco: Pairings announced
The pairings for every round of the upcoming Women’s Grand Prix Monaco are announced. The second leg of Women’s Grand Prix will take place in the Mediterranean principality from 2 to 15 of December. Twelve players will compete in a round-robin event. The participants got the following starting numbers: 1. Harika Dronavalli (India), 2. Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany), 3. Pia Cramling (Sweden), 4. Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia), 5. Valentina Gunina (Russia), 6. Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine), 7. Anna Muzychuk, 8. Humpy Koneru (India), 9. Kateryna Lagno (Russia), 10. Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), 11. Zhao Xue (China), 12. Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) In the first round, the leader in the overall standings Humpy Konery takes on Valentina Gunina, whereas her closest competitor Alexandra Goryachkina will face Kateryna Lagno. The World Champion Ju Wenjun, who is tied for second place with Goryachkina, opted to skip this event. Full pairings Women’s FIDE Grand Prix Series 2019-2020 consist of four Women’ Grand Prix tournaments (hereinafter referred to as WGP tournaments) held over two years (2019-20): 1st – Skolkovo, September 10th – 23rd, 2019;2nd – Monaco, December 2nd – 15th, 2019;3rd – Lausanne, between March 1st and 20th, 2020;4th – Sardinia, between May 20th and June 10th, 2020. Sixteen players compete in four WGP tournaments. Each of the sixteen players participates in three out of four WGP tournaments. Each WGP tournament is played in a round-robin format with twelve participants. In each WGP tournament, every player scores WGP points according to her position in the final standings; the winner of WGP Series is a player who scores the greatest number of cumulative points earned in all three WGP tournaments she participated. The two players who score the most number of cumulative points in the WGP Series qualify for the FIDE Women Candidates Tournament to be held in the first half of 2021. Overall standings after the first leg in Skolkovo: 1. Humpy Koneru (160 points)2. Ju Wenjun (120 points) 3. Aleksandra Goryachkina (120 points) 4. Kateryna Lagno (90 points) 5. Elisabeth Paehtz (75 points) 6. Valentina Gunina (75 points) 7. Harika Dronavalli (60 points) 8. Alexandra Kosteniuk (45 points) 9. Alina Kashlinskaya (45 points) 10. Antoaneta Stefanova (25 points) 11. Marie Sebag (25 points) 12. Pia Cramling (10 points)
Alekseenko rockets up in the November rating list
(Photo: Kirill Merkuryev) FIDE November 1 rating listAll Top-100 listsAll rating lists – download October of 2019 was dominated by the FIDE World Cup and Grand Swiss Isle of Man, the tournaments causing major shifts in the November rating list. It is no coincidence that those who performed well in these massive events made the biggest progress in the rankings. Top-10 November rating list 1. Carlsen, Magnus (2870; -6)2. Caruana, Fabiano (2822; +10) 3. Ding, Liren (2801; -10)4. Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime (2777; +3)5. Giri, Anish (2776; -4)6. Nepomniachtchi, Ian (2773; -3)7. Aronian, Levon (2772; +14)8. Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (2772; +5)9. Radjabov, Teimour (2767; +9)10. Grischuk, Alexander (2764; +5) The most noticeable change, when it comes to top-10, is the resurgence of Teimour Radjabov. After his triumph at the FIDE World Cup, the GM from Azerbaijan reappeared in the elite group for the first time since April 2013. Despite making it to the final, Ding Liren lost 10 rating points but preserved his third position on the list. Fabiano Caruana, who tied for the first in the Isle of Man, picked up 10 rating points and broke away from the Chinese GM, whereas Levon Aronian returned to the top-10 following his strong showing in the same tournament. Alexander Grischuk most likely hoped for more, but his results in two key October events allowed him to get back to the top-10. (Photo: Kirill Merkuryev) Biggest gains 1. Alekseenko, Kirill (2715; +41) 2. Wang, Hao (2752; +26)3. Najer, Evgeniy (2661; +26)4. Abasov, Nijat (2655; +23)5. Maghsoodloo, Parham (2684; +20)6. Vitiugov, Nikita (2751; +19)7. Predke, Alexandr (2676; +19)8. Firouzja, Alireza (2720; +18)9-11. Duda, Jan-Krzysztof (2748; +14)9-11. Aronian, Levon (2772; +14)9-11. Kryvoruchko, Yuriy (2683; +14) Kirill Alekseenko made a real splash at the World Cup, reaching the round of 16, but a couple a weeks later did even better in the Grand Swiss Isle of Man where he came third. As a result, the young GM from St-Petersburg soared up in the rating list and became the biggest gainer of October (41 points). The winner of the Grand Swiss Wang Hao understandably netted quite a lot of rating points and tied for the second in this nomination. Another Russian GM Evgeniy Najer also earned 26 rating points thanks to his solid performance in the above-mentioned tournaments (plus a couple of victories in the Czech League) and climbed 62 positions up. The same but to a slightly lesser extent applies to a young Azerbaijani GM Nijat Abasov who is making his debut in the top-100. Other top players from our list (except for Alexander Predke, who mainly accumulated his points in Spanish Team Championship in Linares) also distinguished themselves in one or both important October events. Welcome to top-100 78. Najer, Evgeniy (2661)79. Melkumyan, Hrant (2661)84. Swiercz, Dariusz (2659)87. Lupulescu, Constantin (2657)92. Abasov, Nijat (2655)96. Adhiban, B. (2654)98. Kuzubov, Yuriy (2652) We have seven newcomers in the top-100 and again, the majority of them improved their rating in two flagship October tournaments. Since there were not many women’s tournaments in October, the top-10 remains virtually intact. Nevertheless, two women, namely Harika Dronavalli and Dinara Saduakassova made a difference. Playing in the open section of the Grand Swiss Isle of Man they scored 5.5 each and became best performing women in the tournament. Needless to say, both substantially increased their rating by 23 and 24 points respectively. (Photo: John Saunders) In the juniors’ list Alireza Firouzja, Jeffery Xiong and Parham Maghsoodloo got closer to Wei Yi who is still reigning on the top, whereas Nodirbek Abdusattorov made it to the top-10 for the first time in his career. In the girls’ list, Zhansaya Abdumalik overtook Zhu Jiner and became a new #1, whereas Polina Shuvalova, the winner of both U-18 and U-20 championships took a giant leap and broke into the top-3.
Full WGP Monaco Pairings
Women’s FIDE Grand Prix Series Monaco pairings are published. The tournament will take place in Monaco 2-15 of December. FULL PAIRINGS: Round 1 on 2019/12/03 at 15:00 GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) – GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) – GM Zhao Xue (2485) GM Cramling Pia (2443) – GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) – GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) GM Gunina Valentina (2509) – GM Koneru Humpy (2577) GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) – GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) Round 2 on 2019/12/04 at 15:00 GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) – GM Muzychuk Anna (2543)GM Koneru Humpy (2577) – GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552)GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) – GM Gunina Valentina (2509)GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) – GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575)GM Zhao Xue (2485) – GM Cramling Pia (2443)GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) – IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) Round 3 on 2019/12/05 at 15:00 IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) – GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502)GM Cramling Pia (2443) – GM Harika Dronavalli (2518)GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) – GM Zhao Xue (2485)GM Gunina Valentina (2509) – GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483)GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) – GM Lagno Kateryna (2549)GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) – GM Koneru Humpy (2577) Round 4 on 2019/12/06 at 15:00 GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) – GM Koneru Humpy (2577)GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) – GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) – GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552)GM Zhao Xue (2485) – GM Gunina Valentina (2509) GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) – GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575)IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) – GM Cramling Pia (2443) Round 5 on 2019/12/07 at 15:00 GM Cramling Pia (2443) – GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) – IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) GM Gunina Valentina (2509) – GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) – GM Zhao Xue (2485) GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) – GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) GM Koneru Humpy (2577) – GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) Round 6 on 2019/12/08 at 15:00 GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) – GM Lagno Kateryna (2549)GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) – GM Koneru Humpy (2577)GM Zhao Xue (2485) – GM Muzychuk Anna (2543)GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) – GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552)IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) – GM Gunina Valentina (2509)GM Cramling Pia (2443) – GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) Round 7 on 2019/12/10 at 15:00 GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) – GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) GM Gunina Valentina (2509) – GM Cramling Pia (2443)GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) – IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) – GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) GM Koneru Humpy (2577) – GM Zhao Xue (2485)GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) – GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) Round 8 on 2019/12/11 at 15:00 GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) – GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) GM Zhao Xue (2485) – GM Lagno Kateryna (2549)GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) – GM Koneru Humpy (2577)IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) – GM Muzychuk Anna (2543)GM Cramling Pia (2443) – GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552)GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) – GM Gunina Valentina (2509) Round 9 on 2019/12/12 at 15:00 GM Gunina Valentina (2509) – GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502)GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) – GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575)GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) – GM Cramling Pia (2443)GM Koneru Humpy (2577) – IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484)GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) – GM Harika Dronavalli (2518)GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) – GM Zhao Xue (2485) Round 10 on 2019/12/13 at 15:00 GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502) – GM Zhao Xue (2485)GM Harika Dronavalli (2518) – GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483)IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484) – GM Lagno Kateryna (2549)GM Cramling Pia (2443) – GM Koneru Humpy (2577)GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575) – GM Muzychuk Anna (2543)GM Gunina Valentina (2509) – GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) Round 11 on 2019/12/14 at 11:00 GM Muzychuk Mariya (2552) – GM Dzagnidze Nana (2502)GM Muzychuk Anna (2543) – GM Gunina Valentina (2509)GM Koneru Humpy (2577) – GM Goryachkina Aleksandra (2575)GM Lagno Kateryna (2549) – GM Cramling Pia (2443)GM Kosteniuk Alexandra (2483) – IM Paehtz Elisabeth (2484)GM Zhao Xue (2485) – GM Harika Dronavalli (2518)