Women's World Chess Championship 2008

The Women's World Chess Championship 2008 took place from August 28, 2008 to September 18 in Nalchik, Russia. It was won by Alexandra Kosteniuk, who beat Hou Yifan in the final by 2½ to 1½.

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

Players were seeded by their Elo ratings (July 2008 list), except that defending champion Xu Yuhua was the no. 1 seed.

The world's no. 1 female player (and 22nd overall), Judit Polgár, has never competed for the Women's World Championship and did not play this time either. World no. 3 and ex-champion, Xie Jun, had played little chess in recent years (four rated games since 2005) and also did not appear. Also 2006 World Championship's runner-up Alisa Galliamova didn't participate. Other absentees from the top 20 were Kateryna Lahno (ranked 12th), ex-champion Zhu Chen (15th) and Elina Danielian (16 th).

Some players refused to go to Nalchik. In their letters to FIDE, Canadian Natalia Khoudgarian and American Irina Krush both cited the general safety in the region of North Caucasus.

More players protested after the start of the 2008 South Ossetia war. On 12 August 2008, six Georgian players published an open letter asking to move the Championship to a safer place, which was endorsed by several other players (Monika Soćko, Irina Krush, Iweta Rajlich, Ketino Kachiani-Gersinska, Tea Bosboom-Lanchava, Claudia Amura, and Marie Sebag). On 15 August, the Chess Federation of Georgia published an open letter stating that the Georgian players will not participate in the Championship unless it is moved to another country. Argentinian Claudia Amura, whose opponent in the first round is Georgian Lela Javakhishvili, also published a letter to FIDE asking for the Championship to be moved.

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