Participants
Players were seeded by their Elo ratings (November 2010 list), [2] except that defending champion Alexandra Kosteniuk was the No. 1 seed.
Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS), 2507, GM (WC)
Humpy Koneru (IND), 2600, GM (WC)
Hou Yifan (CHN), 2591, GM (WC)- Tatiana Kosintseva (RUS), 2581, GM (E09)
Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), 2551, GM (E08)
Antoaneta Stefanova (BUL), 2548, GM (R)
Anna Muzychuk (SLO), 2530, IM (R)
Pia Cramling (SWE), 2526, GM (WC)- Dronavalli Harika (IND), 2525, IM (J08)
- Ju Wenjun (CHN), 2524, WGM (Z3.5)
Kateryna Lahno (UKR), 2522, GM (E08)
Viktorija Čmilytė (LTU), 2514, GM (E08)- Maia Chiburdanidze (GEO), 2502, GM (R)
Monika Soćko (POL), 2495, GM (E08)
Marie Sebag (FRA), 2494, GM (R)- Ruan Lufei (CHN), 2480, WGM (Z3.5)
Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM), 2479, IM (E08)
Anna Zatonskih (USA), 2478, IM (Z2.1)
Zhu Chen (QAT), 2477, GM (Z3.1)
Elisabeth Paehtz (GER), 2474, IM (E09)- Zhao Xue (CHN), 2474, GM (R)
Hoang Thanh Trang (HUN), 2473, GM (E09)- Natalija Pogonina (RUS), 2472, WGM (E08)
- Elina Danielian (ARM), 2466, GM (E08)
- Mariya Muzychuk (UKR), 2462, IM (E09)
- Shen Yang (CHN), 2461, WGM (Z3.5)
- Almira Skripchenko (FRA), 2460, IM (E08)
- Anna Ushenina (UKR), 2460, IM (E08)
Yelena Dembo (GRE), 2454, IM (E08)- Natalia Zhukova (UKR), 2447, GM (E08)
- Iweta Rajlich (POL), 2446, IM (E09)
- Irina Turova (RUS), 2439, IM (E09)
- Sopiko Khukhashvili (GEO), 2430, IM (E09)
Jovanka Houska (ENG), 2421, IM (E08)- Marina Romanko (RUS), 2414, IM (E09)
Batkhuyag Munguntuul (MGL), 2409, IM (Z3.3)
Cristina Adela Foișor (ROU), 2403, IM (E09)- Huang Qian (CHN), 2402, WGM (Z3.5)
- Evgenija Ovod (RUS), 2387, IM (E09)
- Tatiana Shadrina (RUS), 2384, WGM (E09)
Deysi Cori (PER), 2384, WGM (AM)- Baira Kovanova (RUS), 2380, WGM (E09)
- Ding Yixin (CHN), 2370, WGM (AS)
- Jolanta Zawadzka (POL), 2368, WGM (E09)
Martha Fierro Baquero (ECU), 2363, IM (AM)
Nafisa Muminova (UZB), 2360, WIM (Z3.4)- Maia Lomineishvili (GEO), 2347, IM (E08)
- Zhang Xiaowen (CHN), 2339, WGM (AS)
- Camilla Baginskaite (USA), 2336, WGM (Z2.1)
- Irina Vasilevich (RUS), 2333, IM (E09)
- Soumya Swaminathan (IND), 2332, WGM (J09)
- Meenakshi Subbaraman (IND), 2328, WGM (AS)
- Julia Demina (RUS), 2323, WGM (E08)
Kübra Öztürk (TUR), 2264, WIM (PN)
Arianne Caoili (AUS), 2242, WIM (Z3.6)- Nadig Kruttika (IND), 2230, WGM (Z3.2)
- Betül Cemre Yıldız (TUR), 2252, WIM (PN)
Marisa Zuriel (ARG), 2208, WIM (Z2.5)- Ingrid Aliaga Fernández (PER), 2154, WFM (Z2.4)
Dina Kagramanov (CAN), 2101, WIM (Z2.2)
Mona Khaled (EGY), 2093, WGM (AF)- Carla Heredia Serrano (ECU), 2087, WIM (Z2.3)
Melissa Greeff (RSA), 2082, WGM (AF)
Amina Mezioud (ALG), 2029, WIM (AF)
Qualification paths
- WC: finalists and semifinalists of Women's World Chess Championship 2008 (4)
- J08 and J09: World Junior Champions 2008 and 2009
- R: Rating (average of the FIDE rating lists of July 2006 and January 2007) (5)
- E08 and E09: European Individual Championships 2008 and 2009 (28)
- AM: American Continental Chess Championship 2009 (2)
- AS: Asian Chess Championship 2009 (3)
- AF: African Chess Championship 2009 (3)
- Z2.1 (2), Z2.2, Z2.3, Z2.4, Z2.5, Z3.1, Z3.2, Z3.3, Z3.4, Z3.5 (4), Z3.6: Zonal tournaments 2009
- PN: FIDE President nominee (2)
Notable absentees
The number one woman in the world, Judit Polgár, never competed for the women's title and did not enter this time either. World number five, Nadezhda Kosintseva, did not play either, although her sister Tatiana (ranked 4th) did. Other names missing from the top 20 were: Irina Krush (17th), former finalist Alisa Galliamova (19th) and ex-champion Xu Yuhua (20th).
Iweta Rajlich and Arianne Caoili were listed as participants but unable to attend; their scheduled opponents, Jovanka Houska and Ju Wenjun, were given byes through to the second round.
