The Women's World Championship takes place on March 16th - April 7th in Sochi. 64 players will compete in a knock-out format.

The matches of the first five rounds consist of two games with 90 minutes for 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game with 30 bonus seconds for each move. The final match consists of four games. If any match is tied, it proceeds to the tie-breaks: two rapid games with 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move time control. If the score is still tied, then there are two 10 minutes + 10 seconds games. In the case of a draw the players continue with blitz (two games; 5 minutes + 3 seconds), and then there is an Armageddon game (White has 5 minutes, Black has 4 minutes, after 60 moves both players receive 3 bonus seconds per move, and a draw counts as a win for Black).

Schedule: Round 1 - March 17-19, Round 2 - March 20-22, Round 3 - March 23-25, Quarterfinals - March 26-28, Semifinals - March 29-31, Final match - April 2-5.

April 1 is a day off.

The games start on 3 pm msk.

Regulations for the Women’s World Chess Championship Cycle