The Women's World Champion started today in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Last night the opening ceremony took place, and while we're writing this, the first round is under way. Hou Yifan of China is defending her title in a 64-player knockout tournament. 

Hou Yifan, still the World Champion, at the drawing of lots on Saturday | Photos courtesy of the Russian Chess Federation

The Women’s World Chess Championship 2012 is the conclusion of the current Women's World Championship cycle. Unlike their male colleagues, the women have a World Championship that's supposed to take place every year. Qualifying events are national championships, zonal tournaments, continental championships, Women’s Grand Prix tournaments and the previous World Championship.

The World Championship is a match (10 games, 2 players) in odd years (2011, 2013, etc.) and a knockout tournament (64 players) in even years (2012, 2014 etc.). The Chinese Hou Yifan defended her title successfully last year in a match against Humpy Koneru of India, and this time she will need to beat six players in 2-game matches and possible tie-breaks to do the same.

The tie-breaks are a bit different from what we're used to at World Cup tournaments, where two rapid games and up to ten blitz games are played before there's an all-decisive sudden-death game. The women play two rapid games (25 minutes + 10 seconds increment), two blitz games (10 minutes + 10 seconds increment), two faster blitz games (5 minutes + 3 seconds increment) and then the sudden-death (5 vs 4 + 3 seconds, increment frome move 61, draw odds for Black).

The pairings are done following the principle of top half vs. lower half reversed (1-64, 2-63...). Thus the highest ranked player of the top half plays the lowest ranked player of the bottom half. If the lower ranked player wins in any match, she shall automatically take the position of the higher ranked player for the next round.

For rounds 1-5 every match consists of two classical games and a possible tie-break. In the final there will be four classical games instead of two.

Prize fund in US $

Participants

a) From World Women’s Championships 2010-2011:
01. Hou, Yifan (CHN) – World Champion
02. Koneru, Humpy (IND) – World Champion Finalist 2011
03. Zhao Xue (CHN) – World Championship Semi finals 2010

b) World Girl Junior Champions 2010-2011:
04. Muzychuk, Anna (SLO)
05. Cori T Deysi (PER)

c) Rating List average 7/2011 & 1/2012:
06. Gunina, Valentina (RUS)
07. Galliamova, Alisa (RUS)
08. Zhu, Chen (QAT)
09. Kosteniuk, Alexandra (RUS)
10. Skripchenko, Almira (FRA)
11. Ushenina, Anna (UKR)

d) 28 players from European Women’s Championships 2010 & 2011
12. Cramling, Pia (SWE) (2010)
13. Cmilyte, Viktorija (LTU)
14. Socko Monika (POL)
15. Sebag, Marie (FRA)
16. Kosintseva Tatiana (RUS)
17. Zhukova Natalia (UKR)
18. Dembo Elena (GRE)
19. Stefanova Antoaneta (BUL)
20. Kosintseva Nadezhda (RUS)
21. Muzychuk Mariya (UKR)
22. Rajlich Iweta (POL)
23. Ziaziulkina Nastassia (BLR)
24. Kovalevskaya Ekaterina (RUS)
25. Khurtsidze Nino (GEO)
26. Danielian, Elina (ARM) (2011)
27. Matveeva, Svetlana (RUS)
28. Khotenashvili, Bela (GEO)
29. Lahno, Kateryna (UKR)
30. Javakhishvili, Lela (GEO)
31. Arakhamia-Grant, Ketevan (SCO)
32. Foisor, Cristina-Adela (ROU)
33. Bodnaruk Anastasia (RUS)
34. Pogonina Natalija (RUS)
35. Ovod Evgenija (RUS)
36. Romanko Marina (RUS)
37. Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN)
38. Mkrtchian Lilit (ARM)
39. Khukhashvili Sopiko (GEO)

e) Eight players from Americas
40. Arribas Robaina, Maritza (CUB) (Continental)
41. Zatonskih, Anna (USA) (Zonal 2.1)
42. Abrahamyan, Tatev (USA) (Zonal 2.1)
43. Krush, Irina (USA) (Zonal 2.1)
44. Khoudgarian, Natalia (CAN) (Zonal 2.2)
45. Castrillon Gomez, Melissa (COL) (Zonal 2.3)
46. Aliaga Fernandez, Ingrid (PER) (Zonal 2.4)
47. Lujan, Carolina (ARG) (Zonal 2.5)

f) Twelve players from Asia/Oceania
48. Pourkashiyan, Atousa (IRI) (Continental 2010)
49. Harika, Dronavalli (IND) (Continental 2011)
50. Ghader Pour, Shayesteh (IRI) (Zonal 3.1)
51. Ranasinghe, S D (SRI) (Zonal 3.2)
52. Li, Ruofan (SIN) (Zonal 3.3)
53. Davletbayeva, Madina (KAZ) (Zonal 3.4)
54. Ju Wenjun (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
55. Shen Yang (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
56. Huang Qian (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
57. Gu Xiaobing (CHN) (Zonal 3.5)
58. Berezina, Irina (AUS) (Zonal 3.6)
59. Soumya, Swaminathan (IND) (Zonal 3.7)

g) Three players from African Women’s Championship 2011
60. Mona, Khaled (EGY)
61. Mezioud, Amina (ALG)
62. Frick, Denise (RSA)

h) Two nominees of the FIDE President
63. Guo Qi (CHN)
64. Olga Girya (RUS)

Venue

The venue is the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk. Sponsored by Gazprom, the building has modern conservative technologies and engineering solutions. The unique three-level building is completely without sharp corners and is styled as a chess piece. It was designed by the famous Dutch architect Erick van Egeraat and it took two years to build.

The Ugra Chess Academy

Videos by Chess.TV

During the whole tournament there will be live video coverage provided by Chess.TV. Alexander Khalifman will be responsible for the English language commentary, and Sergey Shipov will comment in Russian. For the first time there will be commentary in Chinese as well, performed by GM (and 13-times Dutch women's champion) Peng Zhaoqing.

Saturday's opening ceremony was broadcast by Chess.TV as well and you can still watch it in full: 

At the drawing of lots Hou Yifan picked a white pawn, which means that on the tables with odd numbers the higher rated players will have white in the first round. You can watch the first round live here.