| Women's World Chess Championship 2012 | |
|---|---|
 Anna Ushenina, winner of the 2012 championship. | |
| Venue | Yugra Chess Academy |
| Location | Khanty Mansiysk, Russia |
| Dates | 10 November – 1 December 2012 |
| Competitors | 64 |
| Champion | |
 Anna Ushenina | |
The Women's World Chess Championship 2012 was a knockout tournament, to decide the women's world champion.[1] The title was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine for the first time.[2] Defending champion Hou Yifan went out in the second round.
The tournament was played as a 64-player knockout type in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, from 10 November to 1 December 2012. Each pairing consisted of two games, and tie-breaks at faster time controls, if necessary.
After only two wins by lower-rated players in the first round, the second round saw the top three seeds all going out to players rated 150 Elo points below them. Of those, third seed Anna Muzychuk lost to the eventual world champion.[3] The fourth seed went out in the quarter-final. The final consisted of four games at classical time control, followed by tie-break games; in it, Anna Ushenina beat former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova in the first set of tie-breaks. The unexpected final of two lower-seeded players led to questions regarding whether a single-match knock-out system is the best way to determine the world champion.[4]
Ushenina lost her title in the Women's World Chess Championship 2013, after game seven of a ten-game match against Hou Yifan, winner of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012.
- ^ "Women's World Chess Championship regulations" (PDF). FIDE. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
- ^ "Kharkiv native becomes Ukraine's first women's world chess champion". kyivpost.com. 1 December 2012. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
- ^ "Favourites fall at the Women's World Championship round two". Chessbase.com. 16 November 2012. Retrieved 3 December 2012.
- ^ Dylan Loeb McClain (1 December 2012). "Underdog Takes Women's World Title". New York Times. Retrieved 3 December 2012.