It seems the 1st Women’s Grand Prix in Rostov-on-Don was only yesterday, but the second event is about to start in Shenzhen, China. 12 women will again compete in a single round-robin tournament which runs from 7-19 September. The opening ceremony takes place today.

The tournament was delayed a week to increase the chances that Chinese World Champion Hou Yifan could take part. Her loss in the first round of the FIDE World Cup did indeed mean she was able to return to China, with a chance to build on her convincing victory in the first stage of the Grand Prix. The full list of players is:

On the eve of the event FIDE President Kirsan Ilyuzmhinov met the event sponsors. The description of the meeting on the official website suggests the prospects are good for chess in China:

On the 5th of September, one day before the start of Shenzhen stage of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix, the main sponsor of the event - Shenzhen Press Group - organized a meeting in the main building of the Media Group. FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, FIDE CEO Geoffrey Borg, FIDE Vice-president and President of the Chinese Chess Federation Chu Bo, General Secretary of the Chinese Chess Federation Ye Jiangchuan, delegate and Vice General Secretary Tian Hongwei (Abigail Tian), Editor-in-Chief from the Shenzhen Press Group Chen Yin, Member of the Editorial Board of the Shenzhen Press Group Deng Zi Qiang and other officials took part in the event.  The main sponsors of the event mentioned that they are very glad to host one of the Grand Prix stages in Shenzhen and are looking forward to organizing more international chess events in the future. “Chess is in fashion in China! This is one of the reasons why we decided to organize this event here in Shenzhen,” - said Chen Yin. Shenzhen Media Group has 5 newspapers, a few TV Channels and Radio stations that started to advertise the upcoming Grand Prix event a few weeks ago. More than 60 TV channels and newspapers all over China were invited to cover the Women's Grand Prix in Shenzhen.