The women's event at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), was held from 2–13 September 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan. It is contested by a record number of 142 teams representing 138 nations. Azerbaijan, as host nation, field three teams, whilst the International Physically Disabled Chess Association (IPCA) and the International Chess Committee of the Deaf (ICCD) each provide one team. A total number of 693 players are participating in the women's event.
China won the gold medal in the women's event, their first since 1994 and their fifth overall. Russian Valentina Gunina, playing on board two, was the best individual player in the women's event with 8 out of 10 points (seven wins, two draws and one loss) with a performance rating of 2643. The gold medals on the other boards were won by Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine on board one, Gulnar Mammadova of Azerbaijan on board three, Tan Zhongyi of China on board four, and Guo Qi of China as a reserve player.
Competition format and calendar The tournament was played in a Swiss system format. The time control for all games was 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, after which an additional 30 minutes were granted and increment of 30 seconds per move was applied. Players were permitted to offer a draw at any time. A total of 11 rounds were played, with all teams playing in every round.
In each round, four players from each team faced four players from another team; teams were permitted one reserve player who could be substituted between rounds. The four games were played simultaneously on four boards, scoring 1 game point for a win and ½ game point for a draw. The scores from each game were summed together to determine which team won the round. Winning a round was worth 2 match points, regardless of the game point margin, while drawing a round was worth 1 match point. Teams were ranked in a table based on match points. Tie-breakers for the table were i) Sonneborn–Berger score; ii) total game points scored; iii) the sum of the match points of the opponents, excluding the lowest one.
Tournament rounds started on 2 September and ended with the final round on 13 September. All rounds start at 15:00 AZST (UTC+5), except for the final round which will start at 11:00 AZST (UTC+5). There was one rest day at the tournament, on 7 September after the fifth round.
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Teams and players Eight of the top ten players from the FIDE women's rating list published in August 2016 were playing in the women's event with only India's Humpy Koneru and Russia's Kateryna Lagno not playing. The current Women's World Champion and highest rated woman Hou Yifan was playing on board one for China, while former Women's World Champions Antoaneta Stefanova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Anna Ushenina and Mariya Muzychuk were also part of their national teams.
The top seed in the women's event were China with an average rating of 2528. They were led by the Women's World Champion Hou Yifan on board one, along with Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Guo Qi. The reigning champions Russia have the second highest average rating. They were led by Alexandra Kosteniuk and were playing with the same players as in the previous Olympiad, where the only difference was the induction of Aleksandra Goryachkina instead of the absent Kateryna Lagno. Ukraine and Georgia were the other two teams with average rating higher than 2400. The Ukrainian team consisted of most Grandmasters (four) and Women's World Champions (two), and included both Anna and Mariya Muzychuk playing on the top two boards, Anna Ushenina, Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko. Georgia were led by the best individual player in the women's event of the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø in 2014 Nana Dzagnidze, and also had Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bela Khotenashvili and Salome Melia on the team.
Rounds
Round 1 The most common result in the matches of the opening round was 4–0. Top five seeded teams, China, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia and India swept Luxembourg, Portugal, Scotland, the ICCD and Macedonia, respectively. All three teams of the host-nation Azerbaijan also had perfect scores as Azerbaijan-1 and Azerbaijan-2 defeated Nicaragua and Japan, respectively, while Azerbaijan-3 won their match again Lesotho without playing, because Lesothan players had not arrived yet. The only close match was Greece's win against Sri Lanka 2½–1½. Three of the world's top four players, Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk and Harika Dronavalli, did not play in the first round. Natalia Zhukova and Inna Gaponenko from Ukraine, playing with the White pieces on boards 2 and 4, respectively, won nicely with sacrificial combinations targeting the square g7 in Ukraine's whitewash of Portugal.
Round 2
The number of teams continuing their winning streak from the first round reduced to 20 with only five, China, Russia, Lithuania, Italy and France, scoring 8 of 8. China and Russia recorded another clear sweeps against Montenegro and Ecuador, respectively, while Ukraine were cut off half point by Moldova after Anna Muzychuk drew her game with the White pieces against Diana Baciu on board one. United States beat Norway by a minimal margin in an interesting match with three draws and American Women's Champion Nazí Paikidze scoring the only win with a spirited attack as Black. Bulgaria's Antoaneta Stefanova won her game with the Black pieces against Oksana Vovk on board one, yet her team played 2–2 with Denmark, because Iva Videnova and Adriana Nikolova lost their games on the next two boards. Spain were also surprisingly held to a 2–2 tie against Estonia.
The biggest upset of the day, however, was Georgia's loss to the 46th seeds the Philippines 2½-1½. Nino Batsiashvili beat Christy Lamiel Bernales as White on board three and Nana Dzagnidze drew Janelle Mae Frayna on board one. The disappointment for the Georgian team came from boards 2 and 4. Bela Khotenashvili brought the game against Jan Jodilyn Fronda to a positionally won rook endgame but then she threw it away to a drawn endgame before making a blunder on move 31 that costed her the game (see diagram). Fronda's win was her first against a grandmaster in her life. She said she had not expected her preparation would come in the game and added that had not expected to beat a grandmaster. The match was tied with only game ongoing, the one between Catherine Secopito and Salome Melia. Secopito was offered a draw in a position with winning advantage that would have led the match to end in a tie. Then, she asked her coach how a draw would impact the team, which is allowed by the rules at the Olympiads, and he encouraged her by saying to "just play". She later managed to convert her advantage to a full point to secure the win for her team. After the round, Philippine team captain Jayson Gonzales said that the team lack exposure and that their rating is relative of their strength. He added that their rating is plus 300 from the published number and that they had shown they could compete.
Harika Dronavalli was the last still playing her game for India, who had already secured the win against Brazil with three wins on the boards 2–4. Nevertheless, it seemed like she forgot about the clock and lost on time in an endgame with better position to Brazil's Juliana Terao.
Round 3
The matches of round three saw Russia and Ukraine continuing their winning streak, while China were halted to a 2–2 tie by Vietnam. France did also proceed on the winning run with a third consecutive match win for a remarkable 11½ out of 12 board points. The number of teams winning their first three matches fell down to 13.
Russia defeated Uzbekistan 3-1 thanks to the wins on the first two boards by Alexandra Kosteniuk as White against Nafisa Muminova and Valentina Gunina as Black against Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova. Ukraine had a more serious opponent in the United States and entered the match with the strongest line-up. The games on the first three boards between Irina Krush and Mariya Muzychuk, Nazí Paikidze and Anna Muzychuk, and Anna Zatonskih and Natalia Zhukova were all drawn; the only decisive game appeared on board four, where Anna Ushenina beat Kateřina Němcová to give Ukraine a narrow win by 2½-1½. Hou Yifan played her first game at the Olympiad and won against Vietnamese Phạm Lê Thảo Nguyên. Her win, however, was not enough for China to snatch the match win as Zhao Xue suffered a loss with the White pieces from Nguyễn Thị Mai Hưng on the third board and the other two games were drawn. Georgia recovered from the shocking loss to the Philippines in the previous round to convincingly beat Estonia 3½-½, in a match with only Lela Javakhishvili failing to win her game against Monika Tsõganova. The Philippines were out of the form against Georgia and were doused by the strong Indian team with 3½-½, though Janelle May Frayna showed consistency and held a drew to Harika Dronavalli.
Besides the tie of the Chinese team, surprising results occurred in some other matches. One of the biggest upsets of the day was Bulgaria, who were beaten by lower-rated Kazakhstan. The victory of the Kazakh team was supported by Zhansaya Abdumalik's win over the former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova with a powerful long-term sacrifice (see diagram). The strongest of the Azerbaijani teams edged out the higher-rated Polish team 2½-1½ after Zeinab Mamedyarova beat Monika Soćko with the Black pieces on the top board and Gunay Mammadzada defeated Jolanta Zawadzka on the second board. Azerbaijan-2 also remained unbeaten against a higher-rated team as they held Germany to a 2–2 tie. Another surprising result was also Iceland's minimal win over England, in which the Icelandic players were efficient with the White pieces as Lenka Ptáčníková and Hallgerður Þorsteinsdóttir beat Jovanka Houska and Sarah Longson, respectively.
Round 4
The pairings in the fourth round resulted in interesting matches involving strong teams. Ukraine, Serbia, Russia and Kazakhstan remained the only teams with four match victories. Russia narrowly beat Hungary on the top match board with draws on the first three boards and a single win by Natalija Pogonina over Anita Gara. The game on the first board between Hoang Thanh Trang and Alexandra Kosteniuk may have directly affected the match outcome but the Russian closely escaped from an inferior position with a pawn down in the endgame. On the second match board, Ukraine faced France, who had arrived at the Chess Olympiad without their top two players Marie Sebag and Almira Skripchenko. The French team was additionally weakened for the match, because their highest rated player in the tournament Sophie Milliet was given a day off. Under these circumstances, the Ukrainian team snatched a convincing 3½-½ victory with wins by the Muzychuk sisters and Natalia Zhukova on the first three boards. Serbia and Kazakhstan started the tournament as 27th and 31st seeds, respectively but continued their perfect match score in the fourth round to join Ukraine and Russia on the top. Serbia's Jovana Rapport lost to Pia Cramling on board one but her teammates dominated on the other boards to give her team a 3–1 win against Sweden. Kazakhstan closely won the clash with Lithuania 2½-1½.