The Women's World Chess Championship 2011 was the 35th of its kind. It was organised by FIDE and was played in a match format between the defending champion and a challenger, determined via the FIDE Grand Prix series.[2]
On 8 August 2011 the match was awarded to Tirana, Albania. The prize fund was $200,000.[3] The match took place from 13 to 30 November 2011.[4] Champion Hou Yifan retained her title,[5] defeating challenger Koneru Humpy by 5½ - 2½.[6][7][8]
Match format
Women's World Chess Championship, Tirana 2011
The match was scheduled to be played over 10 games with classical time controls: 90 minutes for first 40 moves with added 30 minutes for the rest of the game and a 30-second increment per move starting from the first move.
Koneru Humpy played White in the first game.[9] Colours then alternated, except after game 4. The two players were ranked second and third in the world at the time, behind only Judit Polgár.[10]
Should the match have been tied after ten games, tie-breaks would have kicked in. Those were:
Up to four rapid games (25 minutes per player with a 10-second increment from the first move)
two rapid games (5 minutes per player with a 3-second increment from the first move)
One armageddon game that Black only needs to draw to win the match (5 minutes for White and 4 minutes for Black with a 3-second increment from move 61)
