The Women's World Chess Championship 2012 was a knockout tournament, to decide the women's world champion. The title was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine for the first time. Defending champion Hou Yifan went out in the second round.
The tournament was played as a 64-player knockout type in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia, from 10 November to 1 December 2012. Each pairing consisted of two games, and tie-breaks at faster time controls, if necessary.
After only two wins by lower-rated players in the first round, the second round saw the top three seeds all going out to players rated 150 Elo points below them. Of those, third seed Anna Muzychuk lost to the eventual world champion. The fourth seed went out in the quarter-final. The final consisted of four games at classical time control, followed by tie-break games; in it, Anna Ushenina beat former women's world champion Antoaneta Stefanova in the first set of tie-breaks. The unexpected final of two lower-seeded players led to questions regarding whether a single-match knock-out system is the best way to determine the world champion.
Ushenina lost her title in the Women's World Chess Championship 2013, after game seven of a ten-game match against Hou Yifan, winner of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012.
Participants
Players qualified for the tournament through the previous world championship, the FIDE rating list, continental championships, and two FIDE president nominees. Players were seeded by their Elo ratings (November 2012 list), except that defending champion Hou Yifan was the no. 1 seed.
, 2606, GM (WC) , 2610, GM (WC) , 2586, GM (J10) , 2565, GM (WC) , 2553, GM (E11) , 2539, GM (E10) , 2524, GM (E10) , 2521, GM (E10) , 2517, IM (R) , 2516, GM (E10) , 2515, GM (E10) , 2512, GM (AS11) , 2504, IM (E11) , 2501, GM (R) , 2501, WGM (Z3.5) , 2491, GM (E10) , 2491, GM (R) , 2489, IM (Z2.1) , 2478, WGM (E11) , 2476, IM (E10) , 2476, GM (E11) , 2470, GM (E11) , 2470, IM (Z2.1) , 2468, IM (R) , 2467, WGM (PN) , 2465, WGM (Z3.5) , 2457, IM (E11) , 2455, IM (E11) , 2454, IM (E10) , 2452, IM (R) , 2451, GM (E10) , 2445, GM (E10) , 2441, IM (R) , 2432, WGM (PN) , 2429, WGM (J11) , 2428, IM (E10) , 2415, IM (E11) , 2414, GM (E11) , 2413, WGM (Z3.5) , 2410, IM (E10) , 2409, IM (E10) , 2394, IM (Z3.3) , 2384, IM (E11) , 2383, IM (E11) , 2383, IM (E11) , 2377, IM (E11) , 2369, IM (Z2.5) , 2367, WGM (E10) , 2355, IM (E11) , 2321, WGM (AS10) , 2304, WGM (Z2.1) , 2273, WGM (AM) , 2251, WGM (Z3.7) , 2220, WIM (Z3.4) , 2219, WIM (Z3.1) , 2209, WGM (Z3.5) , 2190, IM (Z3.6) , 2175, WFM (Z2.4) , 2159, WIM (Z2.3) , 2155, WGM (AF) , 2138, WIM (Z2.2) , 2055, WIM (AF) , 1871, WIM (AF) , 1821, WIM (Z3.2)
Qualification paths
WC: Women's World Champion, runner-up of Women's World Chess Championship 2011, semifinalist of Women's World Chess Championship 2010 J10 and J11: World Junior Champions 2010 and 2011 R: Rating (average of all published ratings from July 2011 to January 2012 was used) (6) E10 and E11: European Individual Championships 2010 and 2011 (28) AM: American Continental Chess Championship 2011 AS10 and AS11: Asian Chess Championships 2010 and 2011 AF: African Chess Championship 2011 (3) Z2.1 (3), Z2.2, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1, Z3.2, Z3.3, Z3.4, Z3.5 (4), Z3.6, Z3.7: Zonal tournaments PN: FIDE President nominee (2)
Notable non-participants
The number one woman in the world, Judit Polgár, has never competed for the women's title and did not enter this time either. Other notable absentees were: women's number six Nana Dzagnidze, 2010 finalist Ruan Lufei, and ex-champion Maia Chiburdanidze (inactive).
Format
Each pairing consisted of two games played over two days, one with White and one with Black. The time controls in the classical games were 90 minutes for the first 40 moves with a 30-minute addition on move 41. In case of a tie, tiebreaks were played the next day. The format for the tie breaks was as follows: Two rapid games (25 minutes plus a 10-second increment) were played. If the score was still tied, two rapid games (10 minutes plus a 10-second increment) were played. If the match is tied after these two games, the opponents played two blitz games (5 minutes plus a 3-second increment). If the score was still tied after a pair of blitz games, a single Armageddon game (White must win; Black only needs to draw) would be played. White had 5 minutes, Black had 4 minutes, and both players had three-second increments beginning with move 61.