The FIDE World Women’s Team Championship 2021 will take place from September 26 to October 3 in the city of Sitges.
This coastal town in Spain’s Catalonia region hosted 8 editions of an important chess open “Sunway Sitges Chess”. Now, for the first time, Sitges will organize an official FIDE event.
The event will feature 12 teams made of 4 players + 1 reserve player. Teams will qualify for the event according to the following criteria:
- Best team by rating from each of the four Continents (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe)
- Five teams representing federations with the highest average ratings of the best four female players in the FIDE Rapid June 2021 Rating List
- Host Federation team
- Two teams nominated by the FIDE President.
The FIDE World Women’s Chess Championship 2021 will be played within two stages. The first stage will divide twelve teams into two pools: A and B. Six teams from each pool will play a 5 rounds round-robin tournament, with the time control of 45 minutes for the whole game with an increment of 10 seconds per move starting from move 1.
The top four teams from each pool will qualify for Stage 2 – Playoffs. Playoffs will be played as a knockout tournament, with the same time control. Each duel will comprise 2 matches. If the result is equal after 2 regular games, teams will play a blitz match to determine the winner. If the result is still equal after the blitz match, an Armageddon game will be played as a decisive.
The team which wins the final duel will be declared World Women’s Team Champion 2021.