Ju Wenjun defends Women’s World Championship title

 Ju Wenjun (32) claimed her fourth Women’s World Champion title after clinching a crucial victory in the decisive, final, 12th game of the match against challenger Lei Tingjie

With this victory, Ju has now equalled the record set by her compatriot Hou Yifan, both having won the world crown four times. Apart from defending the title, Ju also won €300,000 in prize money, while €200,000 went to the runner-up Lei Tingjie.

Arkady Dvorkovich, the President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) congratulated Ju on her victory: “To win a world crown is an amazing success, but to do it for a fourth consecutive time as Ju Wenjun did is something else. Congratulations to Ju for her victory but also to Lei for putting up a great fight. The chess world has another fantastic memorable event, and it was great to be a witness to it”.

About the Match

The match takes place in two Chinese cities, where each of the contestants comes from. The first half of the match will be in Shanghai, while the second half takes place in Chongqing.

The match consists of 12 games of classical chess. The payers will have 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment per move starting on move one.

Players cannot offer a draw before they reach the 41st move.

In case of a tie, there will be the following tiebreaks:

Four games with a 25+10 time control.

Two games with a 5+3 time control.

Two more games with a 5+3 time control.

One game with a 3+2 time control, until a winner is determined.

The prize fund is €500,000, with €300,000 going to the winner and the remaining €200,000 to the runner-up.

If the outcome of the match is decided upon tiebreaks, the winner will take €275,000, while the runner-up will receive €225,000.

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