| Hou - Koneru Women's World Championship Match (2011) |
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Played in the "Akernia" hall of the Tirana International Hotel in Tirana, Albania, 14-24 November 2011 (with a rest day every three days). The reigning champion Yifan Hou was challenged by Humpy Koneru, who had qualified from the Grand Prix tournament series that ended with the 6th FIDE Women Grand Prix (2011) in Doha, Qatar. The two players were ranked 2nd and 3rd in the world (behind Judit Polgar). Match conditions: best of 10 games or the first to achieve 5½ points. Time control: 90 minutes for first 40 moves, then 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, with 30 seconds added per move from move 1. If 5-5, four 25+10 Rapid games would be played, and if still equal, up to five pairs of 5+3 Blitz games, before an eventual Armageddon game. Games started at 3 pm local time. The prize fund was 200,000 Euros, with 60% to the winner and 40% to the loser. Chief arbiter: Panagiotis Nikolopoulos. After eight games Koneru could no longer catch up, and Hou had defended her title. Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
Hou 2578 ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 1 ½ 5½
Koneru 2600 ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 0 ½ 2½
Official site: https://web.archive.org/web/2011112...
Mark Weeks: https://www.mark-weeks.com/chess/b1...
Chess.com: https://www.chess.com/news/view/wwc...
ChessBase 1: https://en.chessbase.com/post/wwcc-...
ChessBase 2: https://en.chessbase.com/post/fide-...
TWIC: http://theweekinchess.com/chessnews...
FIDE: https://web.archive.org/web/2011120...
Photo: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipe...
Wikipedia article: Women's World Chess Championship 2011Previous: Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2010) (Hou became the 13th women's world champion). Next: Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2012) (Hou knocked out in Round 2, Anna Ushenina became the 14th women's world champion)
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< Earlier Kibitzing · PAGE 11 OF 11 ·
Later Kibitzing> |
| Nov-25-11 | | Pepperpot: Lack of interest due to cultural/national/ethnic differences. Of course, when you say it, it's unremarkable; when I say it, it's a thought crime. In other words, it's a racist attack on me. |
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| Nov-25-11 | | Ladolcevita: <Pepperpot>
I'm sorry,my friend,but why is it a racist attack?... |
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| Nov-25-11 | | Ladolcevita: <Pepperpot>
I once wrote some posts on a similar note in Le Quang Liem's page,maybe you can take a look and thus would understand it better:)Le Quang Liem Le Quang Liem |
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| Nov-25-11 | | andrewjsacks: Wasn't it Abbott and Costello who first said, "Hou's in first"? How utterly prophetic.... |
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Nov-25-11
 | | HeMateMe: Bhat's on second! |
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| Nov-25-11 | | Atking: <<Atking> Er,actually I'm "he"...> Oops sorry <Ladolcevita>. (Usually Italian word ending with "a"... but Ok) In fact it doesn't matter much for me; more important is your posts and I appreciate them. About Cultural interest I'm pretty sure that Chinese people know better US and Europeen culture than the opposite... (The fact for Japan). As for chess itself, I will be not surprise if there is more Chinese people playing Chess than non-Chinese playing Chinese chess. |
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| Nov-25-11 | | dumbgai: I'm Chinese-American and have been to China many times. From what I know, very few people in China play chess. However, there is a pretty good general interest among the public, and some players like Xie Jun are very well famous. Major chess events involving Chinese players are often covered on the TV news. My parents, who also live in the US, don't care about chess at all but know Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhua, etc. just from watching the Chinese news on TV. It's basically the exact opposite of the US, where there are a lot of hobby players but no major news coverage of chess at all. |
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Nov-25-11
| | HeMateMe: I can't remember when's the last time Sports Illustrated ran a chess story. I think the bathroom controversy between Kramnik and Anand may have generated a story. I have a hunch Yifan might get a story soon. Precocious youth draw interest. They did a story this issue about lexi Thompson, a 16 year old female golfer, youngest to ever win a women's professional event. Yifan has to do some "girly" stuff, like do interviews with western publications (if this is allowed), Say "Justin Beaber is hot!", stuff like that, and the reporters here, who don't care about chess, will write about her, because she is a talented teenager. |
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| Nov-25-11 | | twinlark: There's also the much bigger issue of the international game becoming a laughing stock, run by a corrupt ex-dictator and alien abductee. Sponsorship dollars are hard enough to come by in these straitened times without loony tunes undermining the game at its foundations. |
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Nov-25-11
| | HeMateMe: I think the member FIDE countries should have to put up some real money, comensurate with their GDP. Countries like the USA, which now have chess as an elective in some public schools, should really put up some money for a 24 game, well run final. A lot of the Europeon counrties could put up more money, too. There is no reason why Kirsan and Chess City should somehow dominate the royal game. Its just an embarrassment when a MLB scrub is getting $2 million a year to sit on the bench, and we don't even have a few hundred grand to sponsor a chess final in the USA. New York City is a perfect host for a chess final, the championship match. It could be held at a large hotel in an outer bourugh. Queens NY has a large hotel on the seven line, 45 minutes into Manhattan. Jersey City has new, large hotels, 20 minutes into midtown manhattan. A shame that an impoverished country like Albania is the default host for the women's championship. |
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| Nov-25-11 | | twinlark: Pretty much sums up the state of the game. That plus lame arse federations. |
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| Nov-25-11 | | dumbgai: <A shame that an impoverished country like Albania is the default host for the women's championship.> What's even sadder is that Albania is arguably an upgrade over the default location for chess events that can't find a sponsor: Elista, Kalmykia. It's hard enough to send the press to Linares and Wijk aan Zee. |
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| Nov-26-11 | | Ladolcevita: <Atking>
Thanks,my friend,I always appreciate your posts too:)Yes,what you've said is indeed true.But I've also known many western people speaking fluent Chinese,and some even know ancient Chinese language and read classic Chinese literature leisurely,etc.,and knows a great deal about China in many other aspects(I believe it is the same about Japan and any other country). And on the other hand,many of my Chinese friends do not know much about western culture either...for instance,they dont know English,so they cant even begin to understand western culture,despite knowing some renowned name such as Einstein,Marie Curie,etc... So I think it really depends on individuals,depends on whether they happen to travel to another culture.Otherwise,they will always be satisfied with myths they obtained from newspapers or suchlike... |
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| Nov-29-11 | | lotus123: If anything this match indicates, it is that ELO rating superiority has nothing to do with Chess Strength. Another match that comes to my mind is WCC between Topalov and Kramnik. |
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| Nov-29-11 | | lotus123: If one-on-one match is best way to measure chess strength, how can we rectify WCC cycles so that each time we can have best challanger and best champion? |
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| Nov-29-11 | | Catholic Bishop: One-on-one matches can NOT be the best way to measure anything as it simply creates hilarious contradictions. Case in point, strength difference deduced from head-to head scores: kasparov-shirov 600 elo points
shirov-bareev 200 elo points
bareev-khalifman 300 elo points
khalifman-kramnik 0 elo points
kramnik-Polgar, 600 elo points
By deduction, if Kasparov was rated 2800, Polgar must be rated around 1100, ie worst than an absolute beginner. |
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| Nov-29-11 | | Petrosianic: If you're against almost all of chess history, then you're playing the wrong game. |
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| Nov-29-11 | | Lambda: At Nottingham 1936, Capablanca beat Alekhine, Alekhine beat Flohr, and Flohr beat Capablanca. That seems an equally hilarious contradiction. |
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| Nov-29-11 | | Petrosianic: So, obviously tournaments can't be used to measure anything, at least according to CB. |
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Nov-29-11
 | | alexmagnus: You don't have to go too far. Kasparov never lost against Shirov (with what - 17 wins?), Shirov won a match against Kramnik, Kramnik won a match against Kasparov. That being within a very short time frame. If one-on-one.match is the best way to measure strength, the Kasparov was waaaaaaaaaaaay better than... Kasparov. What matches determine is the <current form>. That is, Hou was better than Humpy <in this particular match>. It doesn't even mean she would win the match if it were to start a week later or earlier, let alone anytime, anywhere. |
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Nov-29-11
| | alexmagnus: Same with Candidate cycles in matches. See, if A regularly beats B, B beats C and C beats A, it really depends on draw luck (in a match system, that is!) who becomes the challenger (and if the champion retains the title). |
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Nov-29-11
| | alexmagnus: Also, the rating difference here was just mere 22 points. Not really something big. |
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| Nov-30-11 | | Chessinfinite: Good match by Hou Yifan, and bad luck for Humpy Koneru. Humpy will be back for the title fight again, looking forward to that... |
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| Jan-02-12 | | Aljechintje: <<claynic9: ...so just curious, what is the correct pronunciation of Alekhine? Euwe?>> You'd have to hear the pronunciation of Euwe, but to English speaking ear, the North Holland version is something like pronouncing a hard a, as in ate, fused together with a quick French u, which is nasal, followed by a soft v, something in between w and v together with a schwa, as in the beginning and the end of the word America. If you're really lazy, it should be pronounced, while pinching your nose, like O-va or O-wa, with a long o, but replace the a's with schwas (I don't have the symbol on my keyboard). |
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| Sep-20-13 | | dumbgai: Hou Yifan continued her dominance by beating Ushenina 5.5-1.5. So in world championship matches her score is 7-0 with 8 draws (not counting her win in the final round of the KO). |
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