Women's World Chess Championship 2001

The Women's World Chess Championship 2001 took place from November 25 to December 14, 2001, in Moscow, Russia. It was won by Zhu Chen, who beat Alexandra Kosteniuk in the final by 5 to 3. The final was tied 2–2 after the classical games and decided in the rapid tie-breaks.

For the second time, the championship took the form of a 64-player knock-out tournament.

Participants
The qualified players were seeded by their Elo ratings (October 2001).

• # 🇷🇺 Alisa Galliamova (RUS), 2547, IM (R)

• # Maia Chiburdanidze, 2513, GM (R)

• # 🇨🇳 Wang Pin (CHN), 2498, WGM (R)

• # 🇲🇩 Almira Skripchenko-Lautier (MDA), 2497, WGM (E)

• # Nana Ioseliani, 2497, IM (R)

• # 🇨🇳 Zhu Chen (CHN), 2497, GM (R)

• # 🇷🇺 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (RUS), 2486, WGM (WC)

• # 🇨🇳 Xu Yuhua (CHN), 2485, WGM (R)

• # 🇧🇬 Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL), 2473, IM (R)

• # Corina-Isabela Peptan, 2462, IM (E)

• # Alisa Marić, 2457, IM (WC)

• # 🇷🇺 Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS), 2455, IM (E)

• # Nataša Bojković, 2452, WGM (E)

• # Cristina Adela Foișor, 2444, IM (E)

• # Peng Zhaoqin, 2443, IM (E)

• # Hoang Thanh Trang, 2439, IM (Z3.2a)

• # Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant, 2437, IM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Tatiana Stepovaia-Dianchenko (RUS), 2435, WGM (E)

• # Nino Khurtsidze, 2425, IM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Anna Zatonskih (UKR), 2419, WGM (E)

• # 🇨🇳 Xu Yuanyuan (CHN), 2411, WIM (J)

• # Svetlana Prudnikova, 2411, WGM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Inna Gaponenko (UKR), 2409, WGM (E)

• # 🇮🇳 Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (IND), 2405, WGM (AS)

• # 🇵🇱 Marta Zielińska (POL), 2405, WGM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Tatiana Grabuzova (RUS), 2399, WGM (E)

• # 🇮🇹 Elena Sedina (ITA), 2398, IM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Tatiana Kononenko (UKR), 2395, WGM (E)

• # 🇩🇪 Elisabeth Pähtz (GER), 2392, WGM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Olga Alexandrova (UKR), 2387, IM (E)

• # 🇵🇱 Iweta Radziewicz (POL), 2387, WGM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Natalia Kiseleva (UKR), 2382, WGM (E)

• # 🇦🇲 Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM), 2382, WGM (E)

• # 🇨🇳 Wang Yu (CHN), 2378, WFM (AS)

• # 🇵🇱 Monika Soćko (POL), 2375, IM (E)

• # 🇦🇲 Elina Danielian (ARM), 2373, WGM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Tatiana Shumiakina (RUS), 2371, WGM (E)

• # 🇵🇱 Joanna Dworakowska (POL), 2358, WGM (E)

• # Nona Gaprindashvili, 2349, GM (PN)

• # 🇨🇺 Sulennis Piña (CUB), 2345, WIM (AM)

• # 🇨🇳 Li Ruofan (CHN), 2341, WIM (AS)

• # 🇲🇩 Svetlana Petrenko (MDA), 2336, WGM (E)

• # 🇺🇸 Camilla Baginskaite (USA), 2336, WIM (Z2.1)

• # 🇧🇾 Genrieta Lagvilava (BLR), 2326, WGM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Julia Galianina-Ryjanova (RUS), 2320, WGM (E)

• # 🇮🇳 Aarthie Ramaswamy (IND), 2301, WIM (AS)

• # 🇨🇳 Gu Xiaobing (CHN), 2299 (Z3.3)

• # 🇺🇸 Jennifer Shahade (USA), 2295, WIM (Z2.1)

• # 🇨🇺 Maritza Arribas (CUB), 2287, WGM (Z2.3)

• # 🇺🇿 Elena Levushkina (UZB), 2280, WIM (Z3.4)

• # 🇨🇳 Huang Qian (CHN), 2275 (AS)

• # 🇱🇹 Dagnė Čiukšytė (LTU), 2271, WIM (E)

• # 🇮🇳 Nisha Mohota (IND), 2262, WIM (AS)

• # Maria Kouvatsou, 2234, WGM (PN)

• # 🇨🇦 Nava Starr (CAN), 2211, WIM (Z2.2)

• # 🇦🇺 Ngan Phan-Koshnitsky (AUS), 2182, WIM (Z3.2b)

• # 🇮🇳 Pallavi Shah (IND), 2172, WIM (Z3.1b)

• # 🇺🇸 Elina Groberman (USA), 2103 (Z2.1)

• # 🇦🇷 Elisa Maggiolo (ARG), 2090, WIM (Z2.5)

• # 🇧🇷 Joara Chaves (BRA), 2079, WIM (Z2.4)

• # Farida Arouche, 2077 (AF)

• # Shadi Paridar, 2071, WIM (Z3.1a)

• # Asma Houli (AF)

• # Wissam Toubal (AF)

Notable top players not taking part were Judit Polgár (ranked the no. 1 woman in the world), Xie Jun (ranked 2nd), Wang Lei (4th), Pia Cramling (6th), Koneru Humpy (13th), Qin Kanying (15th), Sofia Polgar (16th), and Viktorija Čmilytė (20th).

Polgár, ranked 1st female and 19th overall in the world, chose instead to participate in the concurrent open event. Reigning champion Xie Jun had put her active career on hold at the time and decided not to defend her title.

Qualification paths

 * WC: semifinalists of Women's World Chess Championship 2000 (2)
 * J: World Junior Champion 2000
 * R: Rating (7)
 * E: European Individual Chess Championship (29)
 * AM: American Continental Chess Championship 2001


 * AS: Asian Chess Championship (6)
 * AF: African Chess Championship 2001 (3)
 * Z2.1 (3), Z2.2, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1a, Z3.1b, Z3.2a, Z3.2b, Z3.3, Z3.4: Zonal tournaments
 * PN: FIDE President nominee (2)

Final Match

 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! rowspan=2| !! colspan=4|Classical games !! colspan=4|Rapid tie-breaks !! rowspan=2| Total ! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! 5 !! 6 !! 7 !! 8
 * +Women's World Chess Championship Final 2001
 * align=left | 🇨🇳 Zhu Chen (CHN)
 * style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 1 || 0 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 1 || 5
 * align=left | 🇷🇺 Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS)
 * 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 0 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 0 || 3
 * }
 * 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 0 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || 0 || 3
 * }