The Presidents of the World and Russian Chess Federations were there, the Deputy Prime Minister of Russia and the Kabardino-Balkaria President. But not the Georgian players, and some international participants, who did not attend due to the Russian-Georgian conflict. They lost their games by default. Otherwise most of the top seeds won their first games comfortably.

The Women's World Championship 2008 is taking place from August 28th to September 18th in Nalchik, in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. 64 players were eligible to play in the knock-out event, which has a prize fund of US $450,000. Due to the tensions in the region the Georgian players and a few others decided not to participate.

After the pre-tournament turmoil, in which the Georgian and other players protested and the FIDE President appealed to them and then to the Georgian president ("Do not mix politics and sport") we had to wait until the start of the first round to see who would turn up and who wouldn't. All the Georgians – Chiburdanidze, Gvetadze, Javakhishvili, Khukhashvili, Khurtsidze, Lomineishvili – were absent, as were a few others: Tea Bosboom Lanchava, Karen Zapata, Marie Sebag, Irina Krush and Ekaterina Korbut. They all lost their first game by default.

In the following table we can see that the top seeds generally won their games. The first upset is to be found on board 13, where 13th seed Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine lost to 52nd seed Katherine Rohonyan of the US. The next: 16th seed Elisabeth Paehtz, former Girl's Junior World Champion from Germany, lost to 49th seed Ilaha Kadimova of Azerbaijan. The defaulted players are shown in red.

Bd SNo Player Nat.
Result
Player Nat.
1

1-64

Xu, Yuhua CHN
1-0
Solomons, Anzel RSA
2

63-2

Alaa El Din, Yorsa EGY
0-1
Koneru, Humpy IND
3

3-62

Hou, Yifan CHN
1-0
Khaled, Mona EGY
4

61-4

Zapata, Karen PER
-+
Stefanova, Antoaneta BUL
5

5-60

Cramling, Pia SWE
1-0
Sanchez Castillo, Sarai VEN
6

59-6

Gasik, Anna POL
+-
Sebag, Marie FRA
7

7-58

Zhao, Xue CHN
1-0
Zuriel, Marisa ARG
8

57-8

Muminova, Nafisa UZB
0-1
Kosintseva, Tatjana RUS
9

9-56

Kosteniuk, Alexandra RUS
1-0
Pourkashiyan, Atousa IRI
10

55-10

Golubenko, Valentina CRO
0-1
Cmilyte, Viktorija LTU
11

11-54

Muzychuk, Anna SLO
1-0
Velcheva, Maria BUL
12

53-12

Zakurdjaeva, Irina RUS
0-1
Ruan, Lufei CHN
13

13-52

Zhukova, Natalia UKR
0-1
Rohonyan, Katherine USA
14

51-14

Nguyen, Thi Thanh An VIE
+-
Chiburdanidze, Maya GEO
15

15-50

Hoang Thanh Trang HUN
1-0
Arribas Robaina, Maritza CUB
16

49-16

Kadimova, Ilaha AZE
1-0
Paehtz, Elisabeth GER
17

17-48

Ushenina, Anna UKR
1-0
Le Thanh Tu VIE
18

47-18

Foisor, Sabina-Francesca ROM
1/2
Socko, Monika POL
19

19-46

Krush, Irina USA
-+
Sedina, Elena ITA
20

45-20

Zhang Jilin CHN
1/2
Gaponenko, Inna UKR
21

21-44

Javakhishvili, Lela GEO
-+
Amura, Claudia ARG
22

43-22

Nebolsina, Vera RUS
0-1
Harika, Dronavalli IND
23

23-42

Kosintseva, Nadezhda RUS
1-0
Mohota, Nisha IND
24

41-24

Gvetadze, Sopio GEO
- -
Korbut, Ekaterina RUS
25

25-40

Zatonskih, Anna USA
+ -
Bosboom Lanchava, Tea NED
26

39-26

Kachiani-Gersinska, K GER
1/2
Shen, Yang CHN
27

27-38

Mkrtchian, Lilit ARM
1/2
Moser, Eva AUT
28

37-28

Tan Zongyi CHN
1/2
Tania, Sachdev IND
29

29-36

Bojkovic, Natasa SRB
1/2
Ju, Wenjun CHN
30

35-30

Mongontuul, Bathuyang MGL
1-0
Rajlich, Iweta POL
31

31-34

Lomineishvili, Maia GEO
- -
Khukhashvili, Sopiko GEO
32

33-32

Matveeva, Svetlana RUS
+ -
Khurtsidze, Nino GEO


Schedule :


Thursday 28 August Opening Ceremony/Player's Meeting
Friday 29 August Round 1, game 1
Saturday 30 August Round 1, game 2
Sunday 31 August Tiebreaks
Monday 01 September Round 2, game 1
Tuesday 02 September Round 2, game 2
Wednesday 03 September Tiebreaks
Thursday 04 September Round 3, game 1
Friday 05 September Round 3, game 2
Saturday 06 September Tiebreaks
Sunday 07 September Round 4, game 1
Monday 08 September Round 4, game 2
Tuesday 09 September Tiebreaks
Wednesday 10 September Round 5, game 1
Thursday 11 September Round 5, game 2
Friday 12 September Tiebreaks
Saturday 13 September Free Day
Sunday 14 September Round 6, game 1
Monday 15 September Round 6, game 2
Tuesday 16 September Round 6, game 3
Wednesday 17 September Round 6, game 4
Thursday 18 September Tiebreaks/Closing Ceremony


Courtesy : www.chessbase.com

Official WebSite : http://nalchik2008.fide.com/

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