The first leg of the 2024-2025 edition of the Women’s Grand Prix is set to start in the Georgian capital, Tbilisi, this August
Ten players will participate in the inaugural tournament, including former women’s world champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Mariya Muzychuk.
Full list of players competing in Tbilisi:
Anna Muzychuk
Mariya Muzychuk
Nana Dzagnidze
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh
Alexandra Kosteniuk
R Vaishali
Alina Kashlinskaya
Lela Javakhishvili
Bibisara Assaubayeva
Stavroula Tsolakidou
The tournament, a nine-game round-robin, will be held from August 14 to 25 at the luxurious Biltmore Tbilisi hotel, the first glass skyscraper in Georgia and the highest hotel in the Caucasus.
The time control will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.
“We are looking forward to the first tournament in the new season of the Women’s Grand Prix. We think that Georgia is a wonderful starting point given the impact Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze – two former women’s world champions who are Georgian natives – had on the chess world,” said Deputy Chair of the FIDE Management Board, Dana Reizniece-Ozola. “As we will have more tournaments and more players in the 2024-2025 season, this means more opportunities to increase the visibility of Women’s Chess and help get more women interested in the sport,” Reizniece-Ozola added.
A new format, more tournaments, and an increased prize fund
Since its launch in 2009, the Women’s Grand Prix series has grown to become one of the most popular and prestigious competitions in women’s chess. For this season, FIDE has made changes to the system – increasing the number of participants from 16 to 20, while the number of tournaments in the season has increased from four to six, with the overall prize fund also going up.
Players in the 2024-2025 Women’s Grand Prix Season
The list of players includes those who have qualified as well as wild cards. The list of qualifiers was announced at the end of April this year and includes:
N | Player | Qualification Path |
1 | Lei Tingjie (China) | FIDE Women’s World Championship Match 2023 participant |
2 | Kateryna Lagno (FIDE) | FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series 2022-23 |
3 | Aleksandra Goryachkina (FIDE) | FIDE Women’s World Cup 2023
|
4 | Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria) | |
5 | Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) | |
6 | Tan Zhongyi (China) | |
7 | Vaishali R (India) | FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2023 |
8 | Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mongolia) | |
9 | Humpy Koneru (India) | Standard Rating in the April 2024 FIDE Rating List |
10 | Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) | |
11 | Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) | |
12 | Harika Dronavalli (India) | |
13 | Alexandra Kosteniuk (Switzerland) |
Sarasadat Khademalsharieh replaced the reigning Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun, who decided not to participate. Khademalsharieh was next in line to qualify by rating according to the April 2024 FIDE Rating List.
Apart from the qualifiers, there are six wild-cards in the event, five of which have been named:
- Lela Javakhishvili (Tbilisi)
- Bibisara Assaubayeva (Shimkent)
- Elisabeth Paehtz (Monaco)
- Regina Pokorna (Austria)
- Stavroula Tsolakidou (Cyprus)
The regulations for the 2024-2025 Women’s Grand Prix season can be found – here.
