Third Leg of FIDE Women's Grand Prix Officially Opened in Lausanne

The ceremony took place in Olympic Museum.

The third leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Series was officially opened in Lausanne on March 1. 

The event has been launched on the evening of March 1st in the premises of the prestigious Olympic Museum, on the shore of the Geneva Lake. This same location had already hosted the FIDE Knockout World Championship Final 1998 between Anatoly Karpov and Viswanathan Anand.

The opening ceremony was attended by some prestigious guests, such as Lausanne Mayor Grégoire Junod, or Andrew Hoffer of the International Olympic Committee. In his speech, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich expressed his gratitude to the Olympic Museum and stressed the importance of presenting chess in world-famous places such as this one. Barely a year after settling into Lausanne, the International Chess Federation stages one of its major events in the Olympic Capital. The President of the Swiss Chess Federation Peter Wyss stated that the Women Grand Prix was a worthy addition to the long list of historic chess tournaments held in the country.

Round 1 pairings:

Goryachkina - Kashlinskaya, Kosteniuk - Dzagnidze, Abdumalik - Ju Wenjun, Stefanova - Sebag, Harika - Cramling, A. Muzychuk - M. Muzychuk.

The match days: March 2-7 and 9-13. The games start at 5 pm (Moscow time), the last round begins at 2:30 pm (Moscow time). 

It is to be reminded that Humpy Koneru (India) is leading the Series after two WGP events with 293 points. Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia) is second with 253 points. They are followed by the Russians Kateryna Lagno (180) and Alexandra Kosteniuk (178).

Official website