The Women World Team Championship will take place 17-27 December, 2011, in Mardin, Turkey. It is the top world women team event of the year and is organized by the Government of Turkey and the Turkish Chess Federation (TCF) with the patronage and support of the Governorship of Mardin.
Top participating country is China, which meets at the start the European Team Chess Champions from Russia, as well as the ambitious teams of Georgia, Ukraine, India, Armenia, Vietnam, Turkey, and Greece.
Each team’s place in the order of classification will be decided by the number of match points it has scored (won match = 2 points, drawn match = 1 point). If any teams finish with equal match points, the tie shall be resolved as follows: by total game points (each individual win = 1 point, each individual draw = half point); if a tie again results, the scores obtained by the tying teams against each other will decide; if a tie again results, then Berger system will be used; if a tie again results, it shall be decided by board count (Berlin System) as follows: a win on Board 1 4 points, a win on Board 2 3 points, a win on Board 3 2 points, a win on Board 4 1 point.
Live games with computer analysis here
Participants
China (Avg 2527)
Hou Yifan, 2578
Ju Wenjun, 2543
Zhao Xue, 2541
Tan Zhongyi, 2448
Zhang Xiaowen, 2346
Russia (Avg 2509)
Nadezhda Kosintseva, 2546
Tatiana Kosintseva, 2526
Valentina Gunina, 2514
Natalia Pogonina, 2451
Alexandra Kosteniuk, 2439
Georgia (Avg 2455)
Nana Dzagnidze, 2516
Lela Javakhishvili, 2475
Nino Khurtidze, 2440
Salome Melia, 2392
Nino Gurueli, 2329
Ukraine (Avg 2446)
Anna Ushenina, 2463
Mariya Muzychuk, 2460
Inna Gaponenko, 2435
Natalia Zhukova, 2427
Tetiana Vasylevych, 2412
India (Avg 2421)
Dronavalli Harika, 2512
Sachdev Tania, 2428
Rout Padmini, 2392
Mary Anna Gomez, 2354
Armenia (Avg 2416)
Eliana Danielian, 2516
Lilit Mkrtchian, 2469
Lilit Galoian, 2383
Maria Kursova, 2315
Nelly Aginian, 2263
Vietnam (Avg 2306)
Pham Le Thao Nguyen, 2341
Hoang Thi Bao Tram, 2341
Nguyen Thi Thanh An, 2300
Nguen Thi Mai Hung, 2244
Hoang Thi Nhu Y, 2218
Turkey (Avg 2066)
Betul Cemre Yildiz, 2297
Kubra Ozturk, 2239
Kardelen Cemhan, 1881
Ebru Kaplan, 1849
Yesim Patel, 1832
South Africa (Avg 1876)
Van Der Merver Cecile, 2057
Solomons Anzel, 1926
Frick Denise, 1916
Van Niekerk Lauren, 1607
Greece (to be announced)
HISTORY OF MARDIN
Most Syriac Orthodox churches and monasteries in the city were built on ancient Assyrian-Babylonian temple sites and some are still active today. The Syriac Orthodox Saffron Monastery was founded in 439 AD and is one of the oldest monasteries in the world and the only one that is still functioning in southern Turkey. From 1160 until 1932, it was the seat of the Syriac Orthodox Patriarch, until the Patriarchate relocated to the Syrian capital Damascus. The site of the monastery itself is said to have been used as a temple by sun worshippers as long ago as 2000 BC. Mardin is likely the Maride and Marida of the Greeks and Romans. Another important church, Kırklar Kilisesi (Church of the 40 Martyrs), originally built in the name of Benham and Saro, the two sons of the Assyrian ruler who executed them because they chose to become Christian, dates from 569 AD, and even during its use as a capital by the Artukid Turkish dynasty which ruled Eastern Anatolia and Northern Mesopotamia between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries. The 12th century Sitti Radviyye Madrasa, the oldest of its kind in Anatolia, dates from this period.
The lands of the Artukid dynasty fell to the Mongols who took control of the region in 1394, but the Mongols never directly governed the area. Mardin was later controlled by the Turkic tribes who came from Central Asia Akkoyunlu kingdom. The Kasımiye Madrasa was built by Sultan Kasım, son of the Akkoyunlu Sultan Cihangir, between 1457 and 1502. In 1517, Mardin was conquered by Ottoman Turks.
