A tension filled final round saw Humpy Koneru survive a lost position against Zhu Chen to beat her and take first (on tie-break from Danielian after both scored 8/11) in the Doha Women's Grand Prix. Earlier long time leader Elina Danielian had to settle for a draw after going down a known line of an Anti-Meran. Marie Sebag did her best to join these two on 8/11 but was never better against Batkhuyag Munguntuul and eventually went too far and lost. This result allowed Koneru to overtake Nana Dzagnidze in the overall Grand Prix standings and thus win a chance to play Hou Yifan in a Women's World Chess Championship match later in the year. Dzagnidze's play looked increasingly distracted towards the end of the event but nevertheless must be bitterly disappointed that a precise series of results for Koneru and her opponents at the top of the standings in Doha cost Dzagnidze her world title shot. Final Grand Prix Standings are also in this article. World Champion Hou Yifan took clear first with 480 points and Humpy Koneru 2nd 468.3.

6th Women's Grand Prix Doha 2011 (11)

Mark Crowther (Sat Mar 5 20:53:00 2011)