Opening Ceremony of the Shenzhen Grand Prix

Shenzhen, a Chinese city of over 10 million people located next to Hong Kong, today hosted the opening ceremony and drawing of lots of the 2nd stage of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix.

Officials in attendance included FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, Mr. Chen Yin of the Shenzhen Special Zone, Chairman of the Chinese Chess Federation Mr. Chu Bo, and the general manager of Snow Breweries, Mr. Zhao Xifang (knowing that Snow Beer is the world’s best-selling brand of beer might someday come in handy in a pub quiz!).

The ceremony seems to have been as spectacular as we’ve come to expect from China, with the drawing of lots making inventive use of the Chinese zodiac.

The presenter can't restrain her excitement as World Champion Hou Yifan opens the "dog" box

Anna Muzychuk finds a pony

Whose year will it be? Note Viktorija Cmilyte has made it to China after winning the Botvinnik Memorial in Moscow

FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov was involved in some (technical?) wizardry

The pairings for the first round on Wednesday 7 September are:

SNo.		Name	Rtg	Res.		Name	Rtg	SNo.
1	WIM	Yildiz Betul Cemre	2308	-	GM	Zhu Chen	2490	12
2	GM	Zhao Xue	2497	-	IM	Munguntuul Batkhuyag	2465	11
3	GM	Hou Yifan	2578	-	IM	Kovalevskaya Ekaterina	2421	10
4	IM	Muzychuk Anna	2545	-	GM	Danielian Elina	2517	9
5	WGM	Tan Zhongyi	2429	-	WGM	Ju Wenjun	2536	8
6	GM	Cmilyte Viktorija	2525	-	WGM	Ruan Lufei	2477	7

The games will be played at 15:00 local time (09:00 CET) and can be followed live here.

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