The Women's World Chess Championship 2006 took place from March 10–27, 2006 in Ekaterinburg, Russia. For the fourth time, the championship took the form of a 64-player knock-out tournament.
The tournament was won by Xu Yuhua, who beat Alisa Galliamova in the final by 2½ to ½. Notably, Xu Yuhua was three months pregnant at the time.
The players[1] were seeded by their FIDE Elo ratings of January 2006,[2] except that defending champion Antoaneta Stefanova was the no. 1 seed.
Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL), 2499, GM (WC)
Humpy Koneru (IND), 2537, GM (WC)
Pia Cramling (SWE), 2515, GM (E04)
Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS), 2514, GM (R)
Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO), 2511, GM (WC)
Xu Yuhua (CHN), 2502, WGM (R)
Kateryna Lahno (UKR), 2500, IM (E05) Zhu Chen (CHN), 2482, GM (R) Nadezhda Kosintseva (RUS), 2480, IM (E05) Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (IND), 2479, IM (Z3.2) Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), 2479, IM (E04)
Monika Soćko (POL), 2475, IM (E04)
Viktorija Čmilytė (LTU), 2475, IM (E05) Zhao Xue (CHN), 2473, WGM (R) Qin Kanying (CHN), 2469, WGM (Z3.5) Alisa Galliamova (RUS), 2467, IM (R)
Yelena Dembo (GRE), 2461, IM (E05)
Almira Skripchenko (FRA), 2461, IM (E05) Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (RUS), 2458, IM (WC)
Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM), 2453, IM (E05) Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), 2452, IM (E04)
Irina Krush (USA), 2447, IM (Z2.1) Lela Javakhishvili (GEO), 2444, IM (E05) Natalia Zhukova (UKR), 2432, WGM (E04) Nino Khurtsidze (GEO), 2430, IM (E05) Svetlana Matveeva (RUS), 2428, IM (E05) Ekaterina Korbut (RUS), 2427, WGM (J04) Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (GEO), 2426, IM (E04) Elina Danielian (ARM), 2423, IM (E05)
Elisabeth Pähtz (GER), 2422, IM (J05) Elena Zaiatz (RUS), 2422, IM (E05) Iweta Radziewicz (POL), 2421, IM (E05) Tatiana Kononenko (UKR), 2417, WGM (E05) Marie Sebag (FRA), 2415, IM (E05)
Peng Zhaoqin (NED), 2407, GM (E04)
Cristina Adela Foișor (ROM), 2402, IM (E04) Marta Zielińska (POL), 2398, WGM (E05) Anna Ushenina (UKR), 2398, WGM (E05) Irina Vasilevich (RUS), 2386, IM (E05) Wang Yu (CHN), 2385, WGM (AS) Shen Yang (CHN), 2380 (Z3.5) Irina Slavina-Turova (RUS), 2379, IM (E04)
Claudia Amura (ARG), 2366, WGM (AM) Evgenija Ovod (RUS), 2366, IM (E05) Ruan Lufei (CHN), 2361 (Z3.5)
Sulennis Piña (CUB), 2358, WGM (AM)
Jovanka Houska (ENG), 2355, IM (E04) Carolina Luján (ARG), 2346, WGM (Z2.5) Maka Purtseladze (GEO), 2341, IM (E05)
Dana Aketayeva (KAZ), 2330, WIM (Z3.4) Maria Kursova (RUS), 2319, WIM (PN)
Atousa Pourkashiyan (IRI), 2319, WIM (Z3.1) Ju Wenjun (CHN), 2290 (AS) Subbaraman Meenakshi (IND), 2289, WGM (AS)
Irina Berezina-Feldman (AUS), 2285, IM (Z3.6) Hou Yifan (CHN), 2269, WFM (Z3.5) Maritza Arribas (CUB), 2269, WGM (Z2.3)
Karen Zapata (PER), 2218, WIM (Z2.4)
Hoàng Xuân Thanh Khiết (VIE), 2196, WIM (Z3.3)
Ingris Rivera (COL), 2128 (AM)
Natalia Khoudgarian (CAN), 2106, WIM (Z2.2)
Faridah Basta Sohair (EGY), 2083, WIM (AF)
Tuduetso Sabure (BOT), 2072, WGM (AF)
Amina Mezioud (ALG), 1978 (Z4.1)Only two players from the top 20 were absent: Judit Polgár (ranked the no. 1 woman in the world – and 14th overall) who instead took part in the open championship events of 2005 and 2007, as well as Hoang Thanh Trang (ranked 11th).
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A fourth game was not played because Xu Yuhua led by two points after game three.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Total | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alisa Galliamova (Russia)
|
0 | ½ | 0 | — | ½ |
| Xu Yuhua (China)
|
1 | ½ | 1 | 2½ |
