There was held opening ceremony o f World Women Fast and Blitz championship in “Sheraton” hotel in Batumi. Emil Sutovsky president of Professional Chess Association and Gia Giorgadze president of Georgian Chess Federation attended this ceremony, Nana Aleksandria -the main referee of this tournament held the ballot.

As far as you know, 50 representatives of 17 countries will take part in this championship, among them are 17 Georgians. 17 participants have international grand master status among boys, 7 chess players are members of top-10 of the world: 3. Ana Muzychuk (Slovenia, 2598), 4. Hampy Koneru (India, 2589), 5. Zhao Xiu (China, 2549), 6. Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia, 2547), 7. Caterina Lanho (India, 2546), 8. Tatiana Kosintseva (Russia, 2532), 9. Valentina Gunina (Russia, 2530).

World championship will be held in 9-round Swiss system and fast chess in 11 rounds, as for blitz, it will be held in 15 rounds. Time control in each round is the following: fast chess- 25 minute to each chess player, 10 seconds are added to each move. Blitz: 4 minutes to each player, 2 seconds for each move.

Prize money for each championship is 100 000 USD, champion in fast chess wins 12 000 and in blitz- 10 000.

First three round matches are to be held today. First round matches start at 15:00 o’clock and it is aleardy known that Nana Dzagnidze leader of Georgian national women chess team plays against Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2426) who represents Scotland.

It is newsworthy that “Socar” is a general sponsor of this tournament.