The women's event at the 42nd Chess Olympiad, organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), was held from 2–13 September 2016 in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Russian Valentina Gunina, playing on board two, was the best individual player in the women's event with 8 out of 10 points (seven wins, two draws and one loss) with a rating performance of 2643.

They were led by the Women's World Champion Hou Yifan on board one, along with Zhao Xue, Ju Wenjun, Tan Zhongyi and Guo Qi.

They were led by Alexandra Kosteniuk and were playing with the same players as in the previous Olympiad, where the only difference was the induction of Aleksandra Goryachkina instead of the absent Kateryna Lagno.

Georgia were led by the best individual player in the women's event of the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø in 2014 Nana Dzagnidze, and also had Lela Javakhishvili, Nino Batsiashvili, Bela Khotenashvili and Salome Melia on the team.

All three teams of the host-nation Azerbaijan also had perfect scores as Azerbaijan-1 and Azerbaijan-2 defeated Nicaragua and Japan, respectively, while Azerbaijan-3 won their match again Lesotho without playing, because Lesothan players had not arrived yet.

[11] China and Russia recorded another clear sweeps against Montenegro and Ecuador, respectively, while Ukraine were cut off half point by Moldova after Anna Muzychuk drew her game with the White pieces against Diana Baciu on board one.

United States beat Norway by a minimal margin in an interesting match with three draws and American Women's Champion Nazí Paikidze scoring the only win with a spirited attack as Black.

[16] Russia defeated Uzbekistan 3-1 thanks to the wins on the first two boards by Alexandra Kosteniuk as White against Nafisa Muminova and Valentina Gunina as Black against Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova.

[17][18] Georgia recovered from the shocking loss to the Philippines in the previous round to convincingly beat Estonia 3½-½, in a match with only Lela Javakhishvili failing to win her game against Monika Tsõganova.

The Philippines were out of the form against Georgia and were doused by the strong Indian team with 3½-½, though Janelle May Frayna showed consistency and held a drew to Harika Dronavalli.

The victory of the Kazakh team was supported by Zhansaya Abdumalik's win over the former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova with a powerful long-term sacrifice (see diagram).

The game on the first board between Hoang Thanh Trang and Alexandra Kosteniuk may have directly affected the match outcome but the Russian closely escaped from an inferior position with a pawn down in the endgame.

[21] On the second match board, Ukraine faced France, who had arrived at the Chess Olympiad without their top two players Marie Sebag and Almira Skripchenko.

Serbia and Kazakhstan started the tournament as 27th and 31st seeds, respectively but continued their perfect match score in the fourth round to join Ukraine and Russia on the top.

However, the biggest attention in the match and perhaps the whole day overall was attached to the first board, where Latvian Dana Reizniece-Ozola (the country's Minister of Finance at the time) outplayed the current Women's World Champion Hou Yifan.

[22][23] The World champion was out of inertia and committed herself to mistakes that brought her to a hopeless position, leaving the opponent with a kingside attack that could have not been stopped (see diagram).

However, an objective assessment of the situation is that we’re not ready to win medals, but we’ll work with a common goal – to represent Latvia strongly, sincerely and vigorously.

[31][32] Women's World Champion Hou Yifan scored a nice win over Olga Zimina after sacrificing two minor pieces for a strong attack against the uncastled Black king.

[34][35] Nevertheless, the American players scored two wins on the bottom boards, where Anna Zatonskih and Sabina-Francesca Foisor defeated Daiva Batytė and Laima Domarkaitė, respectively, and subsequently edged out Lithuania 2½-1½.

For the Chinese team, who lacked World Women's Champion Hou Yifan, the only win came from Guo Qi who beat Irina Bulmaga on board four.

[44] The Polish win did even have a chance to clinch a match victory but Alexandra Kosteniuk defended the rook endgame with a pawn down against Monika Soćko on board one.

[54][55][56] China convincingly beat Azerbeian-1 3½-½ with three wins on the first, second and fourth board scored by Hou Yifan, Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi against Zeinab Mamedyarova, Gunay Mammadzada and Narmin Kazimova, respectively.

The decisive game was played on the second board, where Nazí Paikidze could not solve the problems on the c-file combined with her early exchange of bishop for a knight and lost the endgame.

[61] Russia retained the chances for gold after edging out Vietnam 2½-1½ thanks to the win by Valentina Gunina with the White pieces against Hoàng Thị Bảo Trâm on the second board.

The Chinese team won narrowly 2½-1½ as Hou Yifan won with the Black pieces against Monika Soćko on the top board and Tan Zhongyi against Klaudia Kulon on the last board; Jolanta Zawadzka scored the only full point for Poland with her victory with the Black pieces against Ju Wenjun in a game in which the Chinese was down an exchange for nebulous compensation, while Zhao Xue successfully defended a rook endgame that was completely winning for Karina Szczepkowska-Horowska.

Nonetheless, the Chinese team bounced back with Valentina Gunina's run of 7 wins in 9 games coming to an end with the loss to Ju Wenjun, while Aleksandra Goryachkina blundered in a difficult position.

Nazí Paikidze beat Padmini Rout to score a full point for the United States and so did Tania Sachdev against Anna Zatonskih for India.

Georgia beat Austria 3–1 with two wins with the White pieces by Lela Javakhishvili and Nino Batsiashvili, while Azerbaijan and Israel defeated Malaysia and Mongolia with the same result, respectively.

[3] Valentina Gunina of Russia, playing on board two, won the individual gold medal overall with a score of 8 out of 10 (seven wins, one loss and two draws) and a rating performance of 2643.