Press-release

Astana will host the Women's World Chess Team Championship (WWTC) from 2-12 March in the Duman Hotel.

Most of the best teams of the world will participate in the forthcoming championship, among which are the three teams which were ranked the best at the World Chess Olympiad, five continental champions, the country-organizer and one team elected by the FIDE President according to the rules.

Astana will gather around 50 of the best chess players out of ten countries: China, France, Georgia, India, Kazakhstan, Romania, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the USA,. Every team consists of five players and the team-winner will be determined in a round-robin event after 9 rounds. Time control is 90 minutes per 40 moves and thirty minutes until the end of the game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

The WWTC has been organized since 2007 and the Chinese team has won all the championships in the past. Hou Yifan and Zhao Xue will not come to Astana and it’s going to be not easy for the team to prove their dominance without the strongest Chinese players.

The Russian team, which won the Chess Olympiad last September and took three silver medals in previous Women’s World team championships, will also play without two top players, Nadezhda and Tatiana Kosintseva. The sisters refused to play for the team under the leadership of the trainer Sergei Rublevsky, citing 'psychological incompatibility'. The two former leaders of the team were replaced by Alisa Galliamova and Olga Girya, nevertheless the Russian team, placed on the second rank in the starting list, remains one of the favourites in the tournament

Women World Champion Anna Ushenina will play for Ukraine and it will be the first official event attended by Anna since she won the title. The Ukrainian team, the bronze medallist of two WWTC in 2007 and 2009 and Olympiad in 2012, will undoubtedly fight for medals in that championship.

The top-seed of the tournament Georgian team will play in Astana with the same line-up as in Mardin. In the last WWCTC Georgia managed to win the bronze medals.

The updated specialized websites astana2013.fide.com and www.worldchess.kz will start working during the championship. There will be a regular update of pictures and video reporting. At the end of every tournament day, round reports of grandmasters will be placed there as well. The organizers of the coming event are Chess Federation of the Republic of Kazakhstan and FIDE, the World Chess Federation, with the support of akimat of Astana, Agency for sports and physical education and the Ministry of Culture and Information of the Republic of Kazakhstan.

Media representatives shall be accredited before 1 March by sending the name of the journalists to the following email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Natalya Shpar – head of press service Women's World Chess Team Championship. Tel:+7(7172)791 518; +7 701 710 89 22

Anastasiya Karlovich – FIDE press-officer
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