Women's World Chess Championship 2006
The Women's World Chess Championship 2006 took place from March 10–27, 2006 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. For the fourth time, the championship took the form of a 64-player knock-out tournament.
The tournament was won by Xu Yuhua, who beat Alisa Galliamova in the final by 2½ to ½. Notably, Xu Yuhua was three months pregnant at the time.
Participants
The players[1] were seeded by their FIDE Elo ratings of January 2006,[2] except that defending champion Antoaneta Stefanova was the no. 1 seed.
- Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL), 2499, GM (WC)
- Humpy Koneru (IND), 2537, GM (WC)
- Pia Cramling (SWE), 2515, GM (E04)
- Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS), 2514, GM (R)
- Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO), 2511, GM (WC)
- Xu Yuhua (CHN), 2502, WGM (R)
- Kateryna Lahno (UKR), 2500, IM (E05)
- Zhu Chen (CHN), 2482, GM (R)
- Nadezhda Kosintseva (RUS), 2480, IM (E05)
- Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (IND), 2479, IM (Z3.2)
- Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), 2479, IM (E04)
- Monika Soćko (POL), 2475, IM (E04)
- Viktorija Čmilytė (LTU), 2475, IM (E05)
- Zhao Xue (CHN), 2473, WGM (R)
- Qin Kanying (CHN), 2469, WGM (Z3.5)
- Alisa Galliamova (RUS), 2467, IM (R)
- Yelena Dembo (GRE), 2461, IM (E05)
- Almira Skripchenko (FRA), 2461, IM (E05)
- Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (RUS), 2458, IM (WC)
- Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM), 2453, IM (E05)
- Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), 2452, IM (E04)
- Irina Krush (USA), 2447, IM (Z2.1)
- Lela Javakhishvili (GEO), 2444, IM (E05)
- Natalia Zhukova (UKR), 2432, WGM (E04)
- Nino Khurtsidze (GEO), 2430, IM (E05)
- Svetlana Matveeva (RUS), 2428, IM (E05)
- Ekaterina Korbut (RUS), 2427, WGM (J04)
- Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (GEO), 2426, IM (E04)
- Elina Danielian (ARM), 2423, IM (E05)
- Elisabeth Pähtz (GER), 2422, IM (J05)
- Elena Zaiatz (RUS), 2422, IM (E05)
- Iweta Radziewicz (POL), 2421, IM (E05)
- Tatiana Kononenko (UKR), 2417, WGM (E05)
- Marie Sebag (FRA), 2415, IM (E05)
- Peng Zhaoqin (NED), 2407, GM (E04)
- Cristina Adela Foisor (ROM), 2402, IM (E04)
- Marta Zielińska (POL), 2398, WGM (E05)
- Anna Ushenina (UKR), 2398, WGM (E05)
- Irina Vasilevich (RUS), 2386, IM (E05)
- Wang Yu (CHN), 2385, WGM (AS)
- Shen Yang (CHN), 2380 (Z3.5)
- Irina Slavina-Turova (RUS), 2379, IM (E04)
- Claudia Amura (ARG), 2366, WGM (AM)
- Evgenija Ovod (RUS), 2366, IM (E05)
- Ruan Lufei (CHN), 2361 (Z3.5)
- Sulennis Pina (CUB), 2358, WGM (AM)
- Jovanka Houska (ENG), 2355, IM (E04)
- Carolina Luján (ARG), 2346, WGM (Z2.5)
- Maka Purtseladze (GEO), 2341, IM (E05)
- Dana Aketayeva (KAZ), 2330, WIM (Z3.4)
- Maria Kursova (RUS), 2319, WIM (PN)
- Atousa Pourkashiyan (IRI), 2319, WIM (Z3.1)
- Ju Wenjun (CHN), 2290 (AS)
- Subbaraman Meenakshi (IND), 2289, WGM (AS)
- Irina Berezina-Feldman (AUS), 2285, IM (Z3.6)
- Hou Yifan (CHN), 2269, WFM (Z3.5)
- Maritza Arribas (CUB), 2269, WGM (Z2.3)
- Karen Zapata (PER), 2218, WIM (Z2.4)
- Hoàng Xuân Thanh Khiết (VIE), 2196, WIM (Z3.3)
- Ingris Rivera (COL), 2128 (AM)
- Natalia Khoudgarian (CAN), 2106, WIM (Z2.2)
- Faridah Basta Sohair (EGY), 2083, WIM (AF)
- Tuduetso Sabure (BOT), 2072, WGM (AF)
- Amina Mezioud (ALG), 1978 (Z4.1)
Only two players from the top 20 were absent: Judit Polgár (ranked the no. 1 woman in the world - and 14th overall) who instead took part in the open championship events of 2005 and 2007, as well as Hoang Thanh Trang (ranked 11th).
Qualification paths
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Results
Final match
A fourth game was not played because Xu Yuhua led by two points after game three.
Women's World Chess Championship Final 2006 1 2 3 4 Total Alisa Galliamova (Russia) 0 ½ 0 — ½ Xu Yuhua (China) 1 ½ 1 2½