# Women's Candidates Tournament 2022–23

The FIDE Women's Candidates Tournament 2022–23 was an eight-player chess tournament held to determine the challenger for the Women's World Chess Championship 2023. The first stage of the tournament, consisting of the quarterfinals and semifinals, was held from 24 October to 6 November 2022 in Monaco, and from 29 November to 11 December in Khiva.
The second stage, i.e. the Candidates final, took place in Chongqing, China from 27 March to 6 April 2023. Lei Tingjie won the match with a round to spare.
Lei moved on to challenge the defending Women's World Chess Champion Ju Wenjun, but lost the match in game 12.

## Participants

The eight players who qualified for the Women's Candidates Tournament were:
| Qualification method | Player | Women's world no. (Jun 2022) | Rating on Jun 2022 | Women's World champion |
| 2020 World Championship runner-up | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2 | 2599 | |
| The top two finishers in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2019–2021 | Koneru Humpy | − | 2586 | |
| The top two finishers in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2019–2021 | Kateryna Lagno | 4 | 2547 | |
| The top three finishers in the Women's Chess World Cup 2021 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 11 | 2510 | 2008 |
| The top three finishers in the Women's Chess World Cup 2021 | Tan Zhongyi | 9 | 2525 | 2017 |
| The top three finishers in the Women's Chess World Cup 2021 | Anna Muzychuk | 8 | 2529 | |
| The top finisher in the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Tournament 2021 | Lei Tingjie | 6 | 2535 | |
| The highest-rated player on the January 2022 standard rating list | Mariya Muzychuk | 5 | 2540 | 2015 |

## Results

In June 2022, FIDE announced the pairings for the quarterfinals. It has been speculated that these pairings were made to prevent a Russia vs Ukraine matchup before the final.
| Quarterfinals (best of 4) | Quarterfinals (best of 4) | Quarterfinals (best of 4) | Semifinals (best of 4) | Semifinals (best of 4) | Semifinals (best of 4) | Final (best of 6) | Final (best of 6) | Final (best of 6) |
| Koneru Humpy | Koneru Humpy | 3½ | | | | | | |
| Anna Muzychuk | Anna Muzychuk | 4½ | | | | | | |
| Anna Muzychuk | Anna Muzychuk | 4½ | Anna Muzychuk | Anna Muzychuk | 1½ | | | |
| Pool A (Monaco) | Pool A (Monaco) | Pool A (Monaco) | Anna Muzychuk | Anna Muzychuk | 1½ | | | |
| Pool A (Monaco) | Pool A (Monaco) | Pool A (Monaco) | Lei Tingjie | Lei Tingjie | 2½ | | | |
| Lei Tingjie | Lei Tingjie | 2½ | Lei Tingjie | Lei Tingjie | 2½ | | | |
| Mariya Muzychuk | Mariya Muzychuk | 1½ | | | | | | |
| Mariya Muzychuk | Mariya Muzychuk | 1½ | | | | Lei Tingjie | Lei Tingjie | 3½ |
| | | | | | | Tan Zhongyi | Tan Zhongyi | 1½ |
| Aleksandra Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 2½ | | | | | | | Tan Zhongyi | Tan Zhongyi | 1½ |
| Alexandra Kosteniuk | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 1½ | | | | | | |
| Alexandra Kosteniuk | Alexandra Kosteniuk | 1½ | Aleksandra Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 1½ | | | |
| Pool B (Khiva) | Pool B (Khiva) | Pool B (Khiva) | Aleksandra Goryachkina | Aleksandra Goryachkina | 1½ | | | |
| Pool B (Khiva) | Pool B (Khiva) | Pool B (Khiva) | Tan Zhongyi | Tan Zhongyi | 2½ | | | |
| Kateryna Lagno | Kateryna Lagno | 3½ | Tan Zhongyi | Tan Zhongyi | 2½ | | | |
| Tan Zhongyi | Tan Zhongyi | 4½ | | | | | | |