Women's World Chess Championship 2004

The Women's World Chess Championship 2004 took place from May 21 to June 4, 2004 in Elista, Russia. It was won by Antoaneta Stefanova, who beat Ekaterina Kovalevskaya in the final by 2½ to ½.

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

Participants
Qualified players were seeded by their Elo ratings (on the April 2004 list).

• # 🇮🇳 Humpy Koneru (IND), 2513, GM (AS)

• # 🇷🇺 Alisa Galliamova (RUS), 2502, IM (R)

• # Maia Chiburdanidze, 2502, GM (WC)

• # 🇷🇺 Svetlana Matveeva (RUS), 2496, WGM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Kateryna Lahno (UKR), 2493, IM (PN)

• # 🇸🇪 Pia Cramling (SWE), 2491, GM (R)

• # 🇧🇬 Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL), 2490, GM (R)

• # 🇨🇳 Zhao Xue (CHN), 2477, WGM (J)

• # 🇨🇳 Xu Yuhua (CHN), 2474, WGM (WC)

• # 🇺🇦 Natalia Zhukova (UKR), 2471, WGM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS), 2469, IM (WC)

• # 🇷🇺 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (RUS), 2467, WGM (E)

• # 🇺🇸 Irina Krush (USA), 2465, IM (Z2.1)

• # 🇫🇷 Almira Skripchenko (FRA), 2456, IM (R)

• # Nana Dzagnidze, 2452, WGM (PN)

• # 🇷🇺 Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), 2451, WGM (E)

• # Hoang Thanh Trang, 2447, IM (AS)

• # 🇵🇱 Iweta Radziewicz (POL), 2444, IM (E)

• # Corina-Isabela Peptan, 2439, IM (E)

• # 🇩🇪 Ketino Kachiani-Gersinska (GER), 2439, IM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Olga Alexandrova (UKR), 2430, IM (R)

• # 🇱🇹 Viktorija Čmilytė (LTU), 2430, IM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Nadezhda Kosintseva (RUS), 2425, WGM (E)

• # 🇦🇲 Elina Danielian (ARM), 2418, IM (E)

• # 🇨🇳 Wang Pin (CHN), 2417, WGM (R)

• # 🇨🇳 Xu Yuanyuan (CHN), 2410, WGM (Z3.5)

• # 🇵🇱 Monika Soćko (POL), 2408, IM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Ekaterina Polovnikova (RUS), 2406, WGM (E)

• # Natasa Bojkovic, 2400, WGM (E)

• # 🇫🇷 Marie Sebag (FRA), 2398, IM (E)

• # Maia Lomineishvili, 2397, IM (E)

• # Peng Zhaoqin, 2396, IM (E)

• # 🇵🇱 Joanna Dworakowska (POL), 2395, IM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Irina Slavina (RUS), 2395, IM (E)

• # 🇷🇺 Natalija Pogonina (RUS), 2393, WIM (E)

• # 🇨🇳 Wang Yu (CHN), 2393, WGM (Z3.5)

• # Nino Khurtsidze, 2387, IM (E)

• # 🇦🇲 Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM), 2387, IM (E)

• # 🇺🇦 Tatjana Vasilevich (UKR), 2386, IM (E)

• # 🇩🇪 Elisabeth Pähtz (GER), 2385, WGM (E)

• # 🇮🇹 Elena Sedina (ITA), 2382, IM (E)

• # Lela Javakhishvili, 2372, WGM (E)

• # 🇮🇳 Dronavalli Harika (IND), 2368, WIM (AS)

• # Ana Matnadze, 2364, WGM (E)

• # Nguyen Thi Thanh An, 2353, WIM (Z3.3)

• # 🇺🇸 Rusudan Goletiani (USA), 2352, WGM (AM)

• # 🇮🇳 Subbaraman Meenakshi (IND), 2344, WIM (Z3.2)

• # Lê Kiều Thiên Kim, 2341, WIM (Z3.3)

• # 🇨🇳 Huang Qian (CHN), 2339, WIM (Z3.5)

• # 🇺🇸 Jennifer Shahade (USA), 2337, WIM (Z2.1)

• # 🇨🇿 Jana Jacková (CZE), 2331, WGM (E)

• # 🇨🇺 Maritza Arribas (CUB), 2327, WGM (Z2.3)

• # 🇦🇷 Carolina Lujan (ARG), 2319, WIM (Z2.5)

• # 🇰🇿 Maria Sergeyeva (KAZ), 2319, WGM (Z3.6)

• # 🇲🇩 Svetlana Petrenko (MDA), 2319, WGM (E)

• # Sopio Tkeshelashvili, 2307, WGM (E)

• # Shadi Paridar, 2265, WIM (Z3.1)

• # 🇨🇳 Tan Zhongyi (CHN), 2250 (Z3.5)

• # 🇺🇸 Anna Hahn (USA), 2218, WIM (Z2.1)

• # 🇵🇪 Luciana Morales Mendoza (PER), 2120 WIM (Z2.4)

• # Asma Houli, 2116 (AF)

• # Farida Arouche, 2114, WIM (AF)

• # 🇨🇦 Dinara Khaziyeva (CAN), 2110, WFM (Z2.2)

• # Cecile van der Merwe, 2062, WIM (AF)

Notable top players not taking part was Judit Polgár (ranked the no. 1 woman in the world - and 9th overall), Xie Jun (ranked 2nd), Zhu Chen (8th), Qin Kanying (14th), Inna Gaponenko (18th) and Sofia Polgar (19th).

Notably, this was the second Women's World Championship in a row in which the reigning champion (in this case Zhu Chen) did not attempt to defend their title.

Qualification paths

 * WC: Runner-up and semifinalists of Women's World Chess Championship 2001 (3)
 * J: World Junior Champion 2002
 * R: Rating (average rating of July 2002 and January 2003 rating list was used) (6)
 * E: European Individual Championships 2002 and 2003 (29)
 * AM: American Continental Chess Championship 2003


 * AS: Asian Chess Championship 2003 (3)
 * AF: African Chess Championship 2003 (3)
 * Z2.1 (3), Z2.2, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1, Z3.2, Z3.3 (2), Z3.5 (4), Z3.6: Zonal tournaments
 * PN: FIDE President nominee (2)

Final Match
No fourth game was played, as Stefanova led with two points.
 * {| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"

! !! 1 !! 2 !! 3 !! 4 !! Total
 * +Women's World Chess Championship Final 2004
 * align=left | 🇷🇺 Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (RUS)
 * 0 ||style="background:black; color:white"| 0 || ½ || rowspan=2|—|| ½
 * align=left | 🇧🇬 Antoaneta Stefanova (BGR)
 * style="background:black; color:white"| 1 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| ½ || 2½
 * }
 * style="background:black; color:white"| 1 || 1 ||style="background:black; color:white"| ½ || 2½
 * }