Women's World Chess Championship 2001

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The 2001 Women’s World Chess Championship took place from November 25 to December 14 in Moscow, Russia. Zhu Chen won, beating Alexandra Kosteniuk 5–3 in the final after the four classical games were tied 2–2; the winner was decided in rapid tiebreaks. The event used a 64-player knockout format for the second time, with players seeded by their Elo ratings from October 2001. Several top players did not participate, including Judit Polgár (the top woman in the world, who played in the open event), Xie Jun, Wang Lei, Pia Cramling, Koneru Humpy, Qin Kanying, Sofia Polgar, and Viktorija Čmilytė. The reigning champion Xie Jun had paused her career and chose not to defend the title.