The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–14 was a series of six chess tournaments exclusively for women, which formed part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2015. The winner of the Grand Prix was decided in the last stage in Sharjah, UAE, when rating favorite and reigning world champion Hou Yifan overtook second seeded Koneru Humpy to win her third straight Grand Prix cycle.[1] For the third time running, Koneru Humpy finished runner-up to Hou Yifan.
With the overall win Hou Yifan earned the right to play the Women's World Chess Championship 2016 in a ten-game match.
Eighteen women players were to be selected to compete in these tournaments. Each player agrees and will contract to participate in exactly four of these tournaments. Players must rank their preference of tournaments once the final list of host cities is announced and the dates are allocated to each host city.
Each tournament is a 12-player, single round-robin tournament. In each round players scored 1 point for a win, ½ point for a draw and 0 for a loss. Grand prix points were then allocated according to each player's standing in the tournament: 160 grand prix points for first place, 130 for second place, 110 for third place, and then 90 down to 10 points by steps of 10. In case of a tie in points the grand prix points are shared evenly by the tied players. Players only counted their best three tournament results. The player with the most grand prix points is the winner.
Players invited bases on qualifying criteria were:[2]
Judit Polgár (declined)
Alexandra Kosteniuk (of Geneva)[3]
Elina Danielian (of Dilijan)
Nafisa Muminova (of Tashkent) Olga Girya (of Khanty-Mansiysk)[3]
Bela Khotenashvili (of Tbilisi)[4]
Batchimeg Tuvshintugs (of Erdenet)[4] Nadezhda Kosintseva[3] (withdrew)
Viktorija Čmilytė[5]The prize money has been increased from €40,000 to €60,000 per single Grand Prix and from €60,000 to €90,000 for the overall Grand Prix finishes.[6]
With the objective of determining a clear, single winner to play in the Challenger Match and in the case that two or more players have equal cumulative points at the top, the following criteria (in descending order) will be utilized to decide the overall winner:[6]
The fifth stage was moved from Tbilisi to Lopota.[7] The sixth stage was moved from Erdenet, Mongolia to Sharjah, UAE, the world's largest chess club. A move apparently due to illness in the Mongolian organising committee.[8]
The six tournaments were:[2]
Bela Khotenashvili won the first Grand Prix in Geneva and also won her third Grandmaster norm.[10][11]
Olga Girya achieved a GM norm at the tournament.
Ju Wenjun achieved another GM norm which makes it her final GM norm.
Batchimeg Tuvshintugs achieved a 9-game GM norm, her first one.
The lowest of four results is in italics and not taken into the total result. Khotenashvili took the lead after stage one, then Koneru Humpy went into the lead by winning two stages in a row. Hou Yifan then overtook the lead of Koneru Humpy at the last stage.
The top two places are the same as in the two previous Grand Prix cycles.
