HOU YIFAN, THE TRUE WOMEN'S WORLD CHESS CHAMPION Kirsan & FIDE screwed world championship before, now they are doing it again. Hou Yifan is the strongest chess player in the world, she defended her title in 2016 but crapy FIDE wanted her to play other knock out tournaments to qualify for the world championship. There is little chance current world champion Wenjun could beat Yufan. This is absolutely not acceptable. In her own words: HY: I decided to drop out from WGP cycle after I received an unclear answer from FIDE regarding the possibility of a change in the current Women’s World Championship system. I participated in all previous cycles, since 2009, and the main reason in recent years was that the overall winner got the right to play the Women’s World Championship match. I didn’t think this was actually reasonable, but it was the only option I had. Now the situation is different. I do not see any point in taking part in the different stages only to be able to play in the WWCC, especially when the opponents usually are at least one hundred points below me. For years now I have expressed my deep dissatisfaction to FIDE about this, but they didn’t accept anything I said. So I won’t consider staying in a system with which I completely disagree. FF: Will you be playing in the knockout Women’s World Championship, which is scheduled for later this year? HY: No, I won’t even think about it. I can’t agree with the current system. I would like to mention that since the previous WWCCh Match was postponed to this year, the knockout tournament should be held at least one year later. I mentioned this to FIDE, last year before I signed the contract of the Lviv Match and the reply was that they had received my request and “would discuss it at the next board meeting”— same answer as always. Okay, back to your question: already in 2012 I hesitated with my participation. I had won the match against Humpy in Tirana, and then reluctantly played in the knockout world championship in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, with a very unsatisfying result. Then the knock-out tournament in 2015, which was supposed to be held on late 2014, clashed with the Hawaii Chess Festival. This time I had no choice as I promised to play in Hawaii before FIDE announced the new dates of the event. FF: You clearly don’t like playing in the knockout world championship… HY: I’m flexible with any formats of chess events. The thing I can’t agree with is that such a knock-out tournament will decide who is the World Champion. A 64-player knockout event is mostly a lottery: you play two games, and if you lose the first for some reason you have good chances to be eliminated. It is something that can happen in any of the five rounds required to reach the final. I was lucky in 2010 in Turkey, but in Khanty-Mansiysk I was knocked out by Monika Socko in round two. In the same round the other top seeds Humpy Koneru and Anna Muzychuk were also eliminated, all three of us by players rated 150 points lower. The winners of previous knockout world championships have been Xu Yuhua, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Hou Yifan, Anna Ushenina, Mariya Muzichuk – strong players, but in some cases not close to the strongest in the world. Muzychuk - Hou Women's World Championship Match (2016), Lviv, Ukraine: Elo 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Yifan Hou 2667 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ 1 ½ ½ 1 6 Muzychuk 2563 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ 0 ½ ½ 0 3 The 2018 women's world championship is a farce because real champion Hou Yifan did not defand her crown. You have to beat Da Woman to become Da Woman. Tan - Ju Women's World Championship Match (2018), China: The FIDE Women's World Chess Championship match between defending champion Tan Zhongyi and challenger Ju Wenjun was a 10 game match taking place May 3-18. Tan Zhongyi had won the Women's World Championship Knockout Tournament (2017), whereas Ju Wenjun qualified as challenger from the Grand Prix series ending at FIDE Women's Grand Prix Khanty-Mansiysk (2016). The first half of the match was in the Intercontinental Hotel Puxi, near the historic centre of Shanghai, May 3-9, after which the match moved to Chongqing for the remaining five games, May 12-18. The players received 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment from move one (same as in 2016 championship). 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 1 Ju Wenjun 2571 ½ 1 1 0 1 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ 5½ 2 Tan Zhongyi 2522 ½ 0 0 1 0 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ 4½