Top ranked player was Hou Yifan, who won the previous three editions of the Grand Prix, but had withdrawn participation after playing in the first tournament.
The overall Grand Prix was won by Chinese player Ju Wenjun, who overtook Koneru Humpy at the last tournament.
[2][3][4] However, at the March 2016 FIDE Presidential Board meeting, a fifth event was then added, which replaced the Women's Knockout championship.
[5] Sixteen women were selected to compete in these tournaments,[4] though with the expansion the total became twenty, along with extras to replace the withdrawn Hou Yifan.
FIDE has kept every second Women's World Championship as a 64-player knockout tournament since 2010, which Hou characterized as a "lottery."
[2] With the objective of determining a clear, single winner to play in the Challenger Match and in the case of the top two or more players having equal cumulative points, the following criteria (in descending order) will be utilized to decide the overall winner: Like the men's Grand Prix, the number of tournaments were reduced, here from six to five.