report by John Lee Shaw

It is a list that was started in 1927 by Vera Menchik of the United Kingdom, and on 25^th March, 2006, Xu Yuhua became the 11^th name to be entered, as Women's Chess Champion of the World. The 29-year-old WGM from China, beat Russia's Alisa Galliamova in the final, 2¹/₂ points to ¹/₂. Both wins coming with the Black pieces.

Adopting the French Defence in game 1, (games can be seen below this article), Xu did quite badly out of the opening, and her opponent seemed to be sitting quite pretty. However, after some exchanges and mis-play, Galliamova found her edge relinquished. A case of stubborness can probably be blamed for the loss, as Galliamova pursued the win that wasn't there relentlessly. It was costly, and White's position deteriorated slowly but surely. Black seized her chance, and at move 64, claimed her point.

The Sicilian of game 2 was hard fought. Black was not allowed very much activity, but from what I could tell, White was not really much superior when push came to shove. Xu grabbed a pawn on her 21^st move, and Galliamova was able to make some neutralising trades to give White a less than ideal structure. Her extra pawn was doubled, and later Galliamova re-claimed it. Peace was declared in 49 and the point shared.

Rather like game 1, Galliamova was doing very well in the Queens Indian that was game 3. Both players came out teeth bared and ready for a fight. Around the time control, Galliamova started to waver, and just after it Xu was attacking. White deemed the best way to defend as being to attack, and this backfired on her well and truly. She soon found herself in a desperate situation, and out of the fight. Galliamova stopped the clocks, and Xu Yuhua was announced as the new Women's World Chess Champion. Delighted with her victory, the new Champion surprised most by announcing that she is in her 4th month of pregnancy. Her baby is due in September, and she named it as her inspiration to win the tournament. 

The tournament itself, (hosted in Ekaterinburg, Russia), has not passed without raising some controversy. Unlike the men's equivallent (in San Luis, last year, which saw a Swiss system of all play all, between 8 of the top chess players in the world), a knockout format was used. The Womens Championship saw 64 players enter, and discussions started as to whether or not this was really the way to decide the highest prize in women's chess. This discussion was fuelled when the top players, and favourites for the title started to fall one after the other. This included defending Champion, Stefanova, 2nd seed Koneru Humpy, and 3rd seed Pia Cramling -- all in round 2! Alexandra Kosteniuk lasted one round longer, and by the quarter finals, only 2 of the top 10 seeds were more than spectators. 

Is it fair, though, to put the responsibility for this squarely on the shoulders of FIDE as the tournament organisers? Well, one could get in to a huge analysis on this subject, but rather than going off on a rant, I will save my rather lengthy opinion on this matter for a future (coming soon) article.

For now, though, as well as congratulating Xu Yuhua as the new Women's World Champion, we also add to that our congratulations on her pregnancy. We wish her well, and look forward to happy news in September!


List of Women's World Chess Champions:

1. Vera Menchik (United Kingdom) 1927-1944
2. Ludmilla Rudenko (Soviet Union) 1950-1953
3. Elisabeth Bikova (Soviet Union) 1953-1956
4. Olga Rubzowa (Soviet Union) 1965-1958
5. Nona Gaprindashvili (Georgia) 1962-1978
6. Maya Chiburdanidze (Georgia) 1978-1991
7. Xie Jun (China) 1991-1996
8. Susan Polgar (Hungary) 1996-1999
9. Xie Jun (China) 1999-2001
10. Zhu Chen (China) 2001-2004
11. Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) 2004-2006
12. Xu Yuhua (China) 2006-