WGP Series consists of six Women’s Grand Prix tournaments held over two years 2024-2025. A total of twenty players compete in the WGP series, as each Women Grand Prix event will have ten participants.
The competitors of the first leg of the Women Grand Prix in Tblisi are Anna Muzychuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Nana Dzagnidze, Sarasadat Khademalsharieh, Alexandra Kosteniuk, R Vaishali, Alina Kashlinskaya, Lela Javakhishvili, Bibisara Assaubayeva, and Stavroula Tsolakidou.
Tbilisi Women Grand Prix 2024 live games
FIDE Tblilisi Grand Prix 2024 Press release
There is no better place than Georgia to launch the new season of the Women’s Grand Prix. As the birthplace of chess legends like former Women’s World Champions Nona Gaprindashvili (the first woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster) and Maia Chiburdanidze, as well as three-time Soviet Women’s Champion Nana Alexandria, Georgia holds a revered place in chess history. The country continues to produce world-class talent, including Nana Dzagnidze, Nino Batsiashvili, Lela Javakhishvili, and Bella Khotenashvili, making it a fitting host for this landmark event.
“We are delighted that this event will start in Georgia, given the country’s rich chess legacy,” said FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich.
“FIDE has made women’s chess one of its priorities, and the updated Women’s Grand Prix series is an opportunity to further raise awareness of women’s chess, hopefully getting more female players and more sponsors involved”.
The 2024/25 WGP series introduces several key changes, including an increase in participants from 16 to 20, an expansion from four to six tournaments, and a larger prize fund of 120,000 euros. Each player will compete in three of the six tournaments, earning points based on their standings in each event. The top two players in the series will secure spots in the 2026 FIDE Women’s Candidates Tournament.
The Tbilisi tournament
The tournament in Tbilisi will take place at the Biltmore Tbilisi Hotel – the first glass skyscraper in Georgia and the highest hotel in the Caucasus Region. This inaugural event features a strong lineup, including two former Women’s World Champions—Alexandra Kosteniuk, winner of the Munich leg in the 2022/23 series, and Mariya Muzychuk—alongside some of the most promising players in the chess world today.
First round and time control
The first round starts on Thursday, 3 PM local time in Tbilisi. The time control will be 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move one.
Lichess commentary on the 2024-2025 Grand Prix expectations
The world’s leading online free chess server Lichess comments on the upcoming Grand Prix, “Historically, the Women’s Grand Prix has been notoriously predictable. Hou Yifan won every series she played, and Humpy finished 2nd in the first five series, both of which are basically what you would have expected. When Ju Wenjun and Aleksandra Goryachkina won, they weren’t the highest-rated players at the beginning, but they were by the end. Following those expectations, whoever wins this series will probably be the highest-rated among the participants whenever it ends late next year. Right now, the highest-rated players in order are Tan Zhongyi, Lei Tingjie, and Aleksandra Goryachkina. Is that who you would expect to win? Tan probably won’t need the Candidates spot. Lei Tingjie has never played the Grand Prix before. Goryachkina has been one of the best Grand Prix participants, medalling in five of six events, but even she limped to the finish line last time and only ended up second. With the form Vaishali has shown in the past 12 months, it’s not crazy to think she could jump up 50 Elo and steal the series.”
