"VAN" (Sports Desk - 02.04.2026) :: The new FIDE Women’s Grand Prix season will see 20 top women players, each playing in three out of six tournaments, each featuring a 10-player round robin, fighting for the top two places leading to the 2028 Women’s Candidates Tournament.
With final standings determined on cumulative series of points and not just raw scores, the qualification model mixes merit and consistency.
The 20 players are selected via several routes, with many names already known:
– FIDE Women’s World Championship Match 2025 participants: GMs Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi
– Top two from the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix Series 2024-25: GMs Zhu Jiner and Aleksandra Goryachkina
– Top three from the FIDE Women’s World Cup 2025: GMs Divya Deshmukh, Humpy Koneru, Lei Tingjie
– Top three from the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss 2025: GMs Vaishali R, Kateryna Lagno, and Bibissara Assaubayeva
– One spot for the FIDE Women’s Events 2024-25 (the highest ranked player excluding those who have qualified for WGP Series via other paths): GM Anna Muzychuk
– Three spots via Standard Rating in the April 2026 FIDE Rating List: IM Polina Shuvalova, GM Alexandra Kosteniuk, and IM Carissa Yip
– Six nominations by organisers of each of the events in the series (to be determined)
Polina Shuvalova, Alexandra Kosteniuk, and Carissa Yip are the newest qualifiers, based on the FIDE April rating list. The three rating qualifiers reached the spots not just by having the highest rating available, but by playing in at least three events, including at least two individual, from a specified series of competitions between May 2025 and April 2026.
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