Women's World Chess Championship 2018

Defending champion	Challenger
Tan Zhongyi (CHN)	Ju Wenjun (CHN)
Winner of the 2017 World Championship	Winner of the 2015–16 Grand Prix
Rating: 2517 (Women's World No.12)	Rating: 2572 (Women's World No.2)

The next Women's World Chess Championship is an upcoming match between Tan Zhongyi, the 2017 Women's World Chess champion, and her challenger Ju Wenjun. Ju Wenjun qualified by winning the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2015–16.

FIDE has opened the bidding process in March 2017 and tries to find a host, so that the match can be held still in 2017. Given the past hosting problems there may also be a postponing to 2018.

The winner of the Women's World Chess Championship 2017 has the right to defend her title in the match. The 64 player knockout tournament was initially scheduled for October 2016, but postponed due to a lack of an organizer. The tournament was played in Teheran, Iran, from 10 to 28 February 2017.

Ju Wenjun advanced to the quarter-finals, where she was knocked-out. Had she won, challenger would have been the Grand Prix runner-up Koneru Humpy.

The final was played between Tan Zhongyi and Anna Muzychuk as a four game match. After a calm draw in game 1, Tan Zhongyi won game 2 with the white pieces.

The challenger qualified by winning the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2015–16. Hou Yifan had won the first tournament but then withdrawn from the Grand Prix. After four of five tournaments, the leader was Koneru Humpy with 335 points, who already had played her three tournaments. In second place followed Ju Wenjun with 253⅓ and one event left. The final tournament was held from 11 to 31 October 2016, and Ju Wenjun won the tournament convincingly, thus overtaking Koneru Humpy. Koneru Humpy thereby finished overall runner-up for the fourth time.

FIDE's plan is to also hold a 64 player knock-out world championship in 2018. The organizing rights have been awarded to Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.

...
Wikipedia