The Women's World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match played between Mariya Muzychuk, the defending champion, and the challenger Hou Yifan to determine the FIDE Women's World Champion.

On March 14, Hou won the championship by defeating Muzychuk in Game 9, ending the match.

[2] As in her two previous championship matches, Hou Yifan won convincingly, not losing a single game.

The 2015 World Championship was a 64-player knockout tournament in Sochi, Russia, starting on 15 March.

The Grand Prix consisted of six single tournaments, with each player taking part in four of these.

Humpy Koneru then won the second and third stage to take the overall points lead.

[5] After Hou Yifan won the fourth and fifth stage, only she and Koneru Humpy were in contention for the overall win.

Both ELO-rating favorites entered the sixth stage in Sharjah, UAE, with Humpy leading Hou Yifan by 5 points.

[6] Needing at least 55 points and to finish above Humpy, Hou Yifan secured the overall Grand Prix win in round nine of eleven.

[7] Prior to their 2016 World Championship match, Hou Yifan and Mariya Muzychik had played three standard games against each other.

One ended in a draw, while the other two were won by Hou Yifan, both with the black pieces.

[9] In the months before the tournament Mariya Muzychuk played in the men's edition of the Ukrainian championship in December 2015.

Hou Yifan played in the Tata Steel tournament in January 2016.

However, in June 2015, Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, the FIDE president, met with Andriy Sadovyi, the mayor of Lviv, Ukraine, to talk about the possibility of hosting the match.

[16] On July 1, 2015, it was announced that the match would be hosted in Lviv, Ukraine, starting in March 2016.

[17][18] The opening ceremony was held on 1 March 2016 in the Lviv Theatre of Opera and Ballet.

Colours were drawn at the opening ceremony, with Hou Yifan drawing first and receiving the black pieces.

After many exchanges, a drawish position ensued, and the game was agreed drawn on move 31.

A closed Catalan developed in which White had a small advantage thanks to her Bishop pair, but Black was never in any real danger.

With the lead in the match, Hou was content to counter her opponent's efforts instead of playing for the win, while Muzychuk was unable to create any serious chances.

As in game 2, she played the Ruy Lopez, and again Muzychuk went for the Open Spanish.

...Bc5, Hou was visibly disappointed at how deep her opponent's preparation was, but there was no way to avoid the forced draw.

Kg1 Rh1+ 1/2-1/2 Hou played the English Opening for the first time in the match, but Muzychuk had no trouble equalizing.

Rather than attempt to play for the win, Hou simplified the game by exchanging pieces, steering it towards a drawn ending and thereby preserving her 1-point lead.

However, beginning from move 17, she began to play imprecisely, not only losing her advantage but also allowing Hou the better position.

Hou had some advantage early in the game, but a mistake on move 40 allowed Muzychuk to take the initiative.

This led to a pawn-up ending for Muzychuk, but Hou was able to construct a fortress, reaching a Philidor position.

The draw left Muzychuk needing to win the remaining two games to force a tiebreak.

Kf2 Kf7 1/2-1/2 Needing to win at all costs, Muzychuk played the Sicilian Defence for the first time.

However, in the complex middlegame which ensued she was comprehensively outplayed by Hou, who steadily grew an advantage into a winning position.