The opening ceremony of the 1st stage of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series 2011-2012 took place in the assembly hall of the “Don-Plaza” Congress Hotel on the 1st of August.

The event was attended by such honorable guests as the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Vice- Governor of Rostov Region Sergey Gorbany, the Mayor of Rostov-on-Don Mikhail Chernyshev, the President of Rostov Region Chess Federation Sergey Nesterov, the Chairman of Supervisory Board of Rostov Region Chess Federation Yuri Molodchenko, the General Director of “Don-Plaza” Congress Hotel Igor Gorin and other    official guests.

  

  FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov delivers his speech. 

  The Chief Arbiter of the tournament IA Igor Bolotinsky conducted the ceremony of drawing of lots. Each participant was proposed to choose one Russian “matryoshka” with the number on the bottom of each. Anna Muzychuk chose number 9. 

The pairings procedure was resulted in the crosstable according to which we can announce the 1st round pairs: Hou Yifan (China) — Koneru Humpy (India), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) — Ruan Lufei (China), Alisa Galliamova (Russia) — Ekaterina Lahno (Ukraine), Nadezhda Kosintseva (Russia) — Elina Danielian (Armenia), Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Russia) — Anna Muzychuk (Slovenia), Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia) – Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia).

The chess funs will witness the game of the World Champion Hou Yifan and the Runner-up for the title Koneru Humpy who will have to challenge the title in the match very soon.