Fire Exit

On Friday, November 16, 2012 reigning Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) (pictured above, surrounded by fans while signing autographs) was shockingly kicked out in the second round of the Women’s World Chess Championship Knockout Tournament which is taking place at Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Quite incredibly, she lost both rapid tie-break games against Monika Bobrowska-Soćko, just to make even clearer that something is rotten in FIDE’s knockout format for women. Photo: Dmitry Kondratenko.