Women's World Chess Championship 2013 Anna Ushenina vs Hou Yifan begins in Taizhou, China

Chess Blog for Daily Chess News and Trivia (c) Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2013  

Hi everyone, 

The opening ceremony of the Women's World Chess Championship 2013 between Anna Ushenina of Ukraine and Hou Yifan of China was held at the Taizhou Hotel. Xiao Min, the vice-president of Chinese Olympic Committee and Assistant Director of National Sports Bureau, declared the Women’s World Championship Match open. 

The drawing of the colour for the first game was the important moment of the ceremony. FIDE Vice President Mr. Chu Bo was offered to choose from two red boxes and found the name of Hou Yifan. That meant she was the one to choose from two other boxes which hid black and white queens inside. Hou Yifan got a black queen – this means that the World Champion Anna Ushenina will have white pieces in the first game.

Yang Junan, the President of Chinese Chess Association welcomed everybody to Taizhou and pointed out that Taizhou is a city with chess traditions. “Through years’ development, under the lead of government and chess association, chess in Taizhou is very popular and contributes a lot to the development of chess in China. Here also comes out many excellent chess players among whom Hou Yifan is the outstanding representative. I believe that this event held in Taizhou will further raise the reputation of Taizhou and promote chess in this city,” said Yang Junan.

FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov congratulated everybody with the start of the Match, expressed his gratitude to Ms. Xiao Min, the Vice president of Chinese Olympic Committee and Assistant Director of National Sports Bureau, the Mayor of Taizhou city Mr. Xu Guoping, FIDE Vice-President Mr. Chu Bo, the President of Chinese Chess Association Mr.Yang Junan, for the attention which chess receives here.

After the opening ceremony the Women’s world champion Anna Ushenina, FIDE President Kirsan Iljumzhinov and guests were invited for the excursion to impressive China Medical City.

In the evening the world champion Anna Ushenina and challenger Hou Yifan inspected the playing venue and checked the lighting. The Chief Arbiter Panagiotis Nikolopoulos drew the attention of the participants to time control, "zero tolerance" rule and the absence of any restrictions concerning draw offer. The members of the Appeals Committee Chairman Jorge Vega, David Jarett and FIDE Supervisor Ali Nihat Yazici were introduced to players.

The first game will start at 3 p.m. local time on 11th of September.

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