Let loose the flood of complaints about the knockout format (though it is fine when the top seeds win)....

"he winner will face Hou in a World Championship match next year. (If Hou herself wins, she will face the runner up in the 2013 match.) "

Actually if Hou wins she will face Koneru. Runner Up seems to imply runner up in this championship, which is incorrect.

this tourny is shaping up pretty nicely. I loved it how Galliamova destroyed the cocky Gunina today. i reckon Valya will remember this game for a long time.

Knew I jinxed Humpy when I picked her as the favorite. Funny thing, I get the feeling that Monika will oust Hou Yifan if she can survive the two 25-minute games. But I'm probably jinxing her, too.

I don't think the complaints are so much for knock out matches as much as that they are based on just two games is absurd, and the results here and at other times keep making it obvious. Still enjoying the chess just won't be convinced the best man or woman has won in most instances. Five games is the absolute minimium imho and probably 7 makes more sense really. Race to four two games a day with one on the last day if it goes the distance. You can spread this out and have some flexabillity if needed such as participating in several events when possible it doesn't have to be copleted all in one session.

I must say that this tournament is pretty fun. Way more exciting than most of the men tournaments. Sure level of play is not 2700+, but 2400-2500 is pretty good chess and some mistakes make it even more interesting.

I also must say that ChessTV has really taken live chess coverage to another level in the past year or so. I'm not even sure that I wish to follow a tournament without it.

The two-game matches creates suspense in every game, especially since the women tend not to do the reasonable thing and go to the rapids with two unfought draws.
If the organizers are happy, the participants get decent pay. The format is ok for a competition like this. Just don't use it for serious tournaments.
I liked Zhukova's first win. A structurally damaged opening line single-mindedly focused on producing a stubborn little c pawn hero.

My prediction of a Hou-Muzychuk final is starting to look shaky.

Pogonina is playing very solidly and i think she has good chances here, tho hou still has to be the favorite assuming she bounces back from this extremely uncharacteristic beating she received. Having said that it will be very tough for her in the rapid tiebreaks as her rapid play is not notably superior to her peers

I have a doubt - in the first game is it difficult for white queen to fight against two black rooks? Is that lone pawn that good? Why not repeated checks against black king.

Humpy seems to get nervous when she plays in very important events.

Socko really took Yifan to the cleaners on that one. Turning out to be a tournament of surprises. Third game was a lot of fun to calculate.

Can't resist a little nationalistic cheering for Irina Krush, who got past Pia Cramling.

Poor Pia blundered horrendously in the first rapid game when she overlooked an obvious pin. Then she missed a forced win in the second rapid game and eventually blundered into a one-move mate. Just a godawful day for her.

With so many of the top seeds out, Irina might have as good a chance as anybody. Irina will probably never live down the slapped king in that YouTube video. But winning this tournament would sure help some.

The only thing to rely on in women's chess seems to be its unpredictability ...

Hou got rocked in the tiebreaks. Quite an upset! Glad to see Irina advance! Looking forward to the finish.

Lol all the best players are in trouble here Hou, Humpy and Muzychuk might be eliminated.
As far as the odds of the best player winning they are actually much less than 50% yet they increase significantly as more games are added. Perhaps if someone more qualified doesn't I will figure the odds. If all three of the top women are eliminated then it becomes even more appearant.

I think an organization that represents chess on the world scale FIDE should know this.

My newest proposal is any player that maintains a elo higher than the world champion for 1 consecutive year can challenge them outright and any champion has to defend their title at least once a year and can opt to defend it more than that.

Let me clarify when the individual matches are lengthened the odds of the strongest player advancing increases.

like i said, hou is not so strong at rapid tiebreaks. she was easily beaten by short in their rapid tibreak in gibralter. while of course some may say its different as he is an experienced male gm, they should simply see the poor quality of her play in those games to see it is consistent w this more recent pair of losses

the players who get eliminated are clearly not the strongest players in event. Knock out is not so bad and the winner will be a worthy challenger.

In this type of knock-out system, underdogs have a psychological advantage because it pays to be fearless now that they are cornered but the normally superior or fancied players suffered the anxieties of must win and fearful of upsets. This helps to constrain their performance. A better system would be letting the winner of the grand prix (being held every year instead) to challenge the world champion yearly. But of course, if this entails too much work and layout for FIDE, perhaps just alternates the grand prix and championship each in a 2-year cycle.

Just look at it, after only 2 rounds, seeds 1,2,3,5,7
out of the top eight seeds were already KNOCK-OUTed!!!

Vinny Testeverde in 1999, Derek Jeter in this year's playoffs and now Hou Yifan... I feel sick. At this rate, I bet the world ends in December 21st.

@Thomas the problem with two game elimination mini matches is that it injects a very high degree of chance into the equation. Go to an elo formula page inject the odds and as matches are shortened it almost becomes random as to who will win, which is exactly what we see here and in the mens also. This probably falls within the standard deviation and these results are predictable or more accurately put predictably unrelated to chess abillity.

There is a very good reason that world championship matches are long to allow the better player to have improved odds of winning. Nothing at all with sudden death if the matches are long enough to remove randomness from the equation.

I mean why not just toss a coin or decide it over a single blitz game? Maybe boxing should be two rounds also it would be about the same.

That said I have enjoyed the chess so far, and some want to use this as evidence that mini matches are a bad format instead of recognizing its a horrible imlimentation of them. Like making square wheels and then concluding that wheels are a bad idea. Which is a good analogy if I don't say so myself as adding sides to a polygon has the same effect of making it roll smoother with diminishing returns.

;o] Thats my perspective take it for what its worth.

Where could someone get a table like the ones the women are using in this tournament? Just the table not the board. Any information will make my day. Thanks to whomever. Gary