Jos' Chess Page

The text below appeared in Mark Week's About Chess

The history of female chess champions began with the formation of FIDE in 1924. Although then FIDE had had no impact on the World Chess Championship for more than 20 years, its impact on women's chess, which had been largely ignored, was immediate and profound. At its 3rd Congress, Budapest 1926, FIDE organized several events, among them a team tournament and a women's tournament. At its 4th Congress, London 1927, those events morphed into the first Olympiad and the first Women's World Championship.

The reign of Menchik

The 1927 Women's Championship was won by Vera Francevna Menchik, born 1906 in Moscow, daughter of a Czech father and an English mother. At the age of nine she learned chess and as a teenager moved with her family to London, where she took chess lessons from Geza Maroczy (Hungarian, 1870-1951), at the time one of the top-10 players in the world.

Menchik's dominance of women's chess was absolute. Except for the second Olympiad, The Hague 1928, the first seven Women's World Championships were held every two years together with an Olympiad. Menchik won all seven events, losing only one game and drawing four out of 83 games played. She also won a 1937 title match against her chief rival, Sonja Graf-Stevenson (German/American, 1914-1965).

In 1937 Menchik married Rufus Henry Streatfeild Stevenson (British, 1878-1943), a U.K. chess organizer. Stevenson's first wife Agnes, four times British Women's Champion, had died tragically in 1935, when she walked into the propellers of the airplane waiting to take her to the Warsaw tournament. Menchik also met a tragic death in June 1944. She was killed with her mother and chess-playing sister during one of the last German air attacks on London. The British Chess Magazine wrote:

"The death by enemy action of Miss Vera Menchik removes not only the greatest woman chess player of all times but a charming personality. The world will remember her for her chess prowess, for her exceptional skill as a woman player who had beaten in tournament play such gifted players as Euwe, Sultan Khan, Sir George Thomas, Alexander, and Yates. In such company, and she played in several of the Hastings International tournaments and others of similar grade, she usually obtained about 33%, though in the Maribor tournament of 1934 she finished third, behind Pirc and Steiner but ahead of Rejfir, Spielmann, Asztalos, and Vidmar. Her game was characterized by solid position-play, with the definite aim of bringing about a favourable end-game and of avoiding wild complications. The ordinary stratagems of the game, small combinations and the like, were of course part of her equipment, but she lacked that imaginative, inventive spirit without few become really great players."

The last sentence ('she lacked that imaginative, inventive spirit') was a common observation about early women's chess. Whether valid or not at the time, the prejudice that women's chess is somehow boring or uninteresting has long ceased to be true.

FIDE introduces cycles

Like most organized chess, FIDE lay dormant during the 2nd World War. After the death in 1946 of World Champion Alexander Alekhine at Estoril, Portugal, FIDE took control of all activities related to the World Chess Championship (Euwe became World Champion for a day then!). It organized events to produce a new World Champion plus a steady supply of challengers from staged competitions. Parallel to this FIDE introduced a similar system for the Women's World Championship.

The first women's event was a 16-player round robin with entrants from 12 countries, started December 1949 at Moscow. Soviet players captured the first four places. Liudmila Rudenko of Leningrad won the event (+9-1=5), one point ahead of 2nd place Olga Rubtsova of Moscow. The first Candidates Tournament for women was held at Moscow in 1952. Elizaveta Bikova won the event (+11-3=1), one point ahead of 2nd/3rd places, earning the right to face Rudenko in the first modern Women's World Championship match. Behind by one point in the last game, Rudenko needed a win to retain the title. She fought hard, but lost. Elizaveta Bikova thus beat Rudenko (+7-5=2) to become the second women's World Champion. The second Candidates Tournament, Moscow 1955, was won by Rubtsova (+13-2=4), one-half point ahead of 2nd place. FIDE decided that the World Championship would be a triangular match of the three strongest players in the world. Olga Rubtsova won at Moscow in 1956, one-half point ahead of Bikova who finished five points of Rudenko. With no intervening Candidates event, Bikova regained the title at Moscow in 1958, beating Rubtsova (+7-4=3). She accomplished the first successful defense of the title by beating Kira Zvorikina, winner of the Candidates Tournament, with a score of +6-2=5 at Moscow in 1959.

The reign of Gaprindashvili

The fourth Candidates Tournament, Vrnjacka Banja 1961, was won by Nona Gaprindashvili of Georgia (+10-0=6) two points ahead of 2nd place. Gaprindashvili crushed Bikova (+7-0=4) in the title match, Moscow 1962, to become the fourth Women's World Champion. Gaprindashvili defended her title against Alla Kushnir of Russia in matches at Riga 1965 (+7-3=3), Tbilisi/Moscow 1969 (+7-2=5), and Riga 1972 (+5-4=7). Her last successful title defense (+8-3=1) was against her compatriot Nana Alexandria of Georgia at Pitsounda/Tbilisi 1975.

For the 1970-72 cycle, FIDE introduced the same qualification sequence used in the unrestricted World Championship : an Interzonal Tournament followed by a series of Candidates Matches. The first Women's Interzonal Tournament, Ohrid 1971, was won by Alexandria ahead of Milunka Lazarevic and Tatiana Zatulovskaya. The three were joined by Kushnir in the Candidates Matches, where Kushnir beat Alexandria (+6-2=1) in the final match at Kislovodsk 1971.

The reign of Chiburdanidze

The 1976-78 cycle saw two Interzonals at Roosendaal and Tbilisi. Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia finished second at Tbilisi behind Elena Fatalibekova, the daughter of Olga Rubtsova, third World Champion. Fatalibekova was eliminated in a semifinal Candidates match by Kushnir, but Chiburdanidze beat Alexandria (+3-2=5), Elena Akhmilovskaya (+4-3=5), and Kushnir (+4-3=7) to earn the right to challenge Gaprindashvili.

When 17-year old Maia Chiburdanidze beat Gaprindashvili (+4-2=9) at Tbilisi in 1978, the torch passed from one generation of Georgian women champions to the next. She defended her title against Alexandria at Borsomi/Tbilisi 1981 (+4-4=8), Irina Levitina at Volgograd 1984 (+5-2=6), Akhmilovskaya at Sofia 1986 (+4-1=9), and Nana Ioseliani at Telavi 1988 (+3-2=11). FIDE changed the format for the 1985-86 cycle by reintroducing a Candidates tournament, Malmo 1986, in place of the matches. The winner of the Malmo tournament, Elena Akhmilovskaya, is better known today as Mrs. John Donaldson. She eloped with the American IM during the 1988 Olympiad in Greece, where Donaldson was the team captain.

The reign of the Hungarians and the Chinese

The Georgian domination of women's international chess ended abruptly at Manila 1991, when the young Chinese star Xie Jun beat Chiburdanidze (+4-2=9). She had earned the right to be challenger by finishing second behind Gaprindashvili at the 1990 Interzonal in Kuala Lumpur, tying with Alisa Maric at the Candidates Tournament, Borzomi 1990, then beating Maric (+3-1=3) in a tiebreak match.

Xie Jun's victory set the stage for a clash with Zsuzsa (Susan) Polgar, the eldest of the famous Polgar sisters - Susan, Sofia, and Judit - of Hungary. When Judit emerged as the strongest of the three, the family decided that she would seek the unrestricted World Championship, while Susan would seek the Women's World Championship.

Zsuzsa Polgar, 23 years old, easily won the women's Candidates Tournament, Shanghai 1992, three points ahead of Ioseliani and Chiburdanidze. The FIDE rules stipulated that the top two candidates would meet in a final match to decide Xie Jun's challenger. Since Ioseliani had the higher tiebreak, she was tapped for the match with Polgar. Few observers expected the Polgar - Ioseliani match to be more than a formality. At the start of the 8-game match, Monaco 1993, the Hungarian outrated her Georgian opponent by 100 rating points. After Polgar won the first two games and drew the next three, she needed only one point in the last three games to clinch the win. Ioseliani won the sixth game, drew the seventh, and won the eighth to take the match into a two-game tiebreak. Polgar won the first tiebreak game, but Ioseliani won the second, forcing a second two-game tiebreak. When the pattern repeated - Polgar winning then Ioselani - FIDE ruled that the match would be decided by a lottery. This time Ioseliani won, eliminating Polgar from the cycle. The title match was an anticlimax. Ioseliani's luck ran out and Xie Jun defeated her decisively (+7-1=3) at Monaco 1993.

The next cycle was all Zsuzsa Polgar's. After tying with Chiburdanidze in the Candidates Tournament, Tilburg 1994, she beat the ex-World Champion in the final match (+4-0=3), St. Petersburg 1995. She went on to beat Xie Jun (+6-2=5) at Jaen 1996, giving the Polgar family its first World Champion. The chess world did not suspect that this would be the last classic match played on the terms in effect since Bikova - Rudenko 1953.

The next Candidates Tournament, Groningen 1997, was organized concurrent with the first of the FIDE World Championship Knockout tournaments. Alisa Galliamova and Xie Jun finished 1st and 2nd, seeding them into the final match. Susan Polgar's sister Judit competed in the Knockout event, but was eliminated in the second round. Her best result in FIDE Knockout events was Las Vegas 1999, when she was eliminated in the 5th round by Alexander Khalifman, the eventual winner of the tournament and the title.

The final match in the Women's Championship was scheduled to be played in Shenyang, after sponsors from China made the best offer for the prize fund. Galliamova refused to play the entire match in China and the win was awarded by default to Xie Jun. The title match would be Polgar - Xie Jun II. By the time FIDE announced the date and venue for the title match, Polgar had given birth to her first child. She considered that the time to recover from childbirth and to prepare for the new match was insufficient. She requested that the match be postponed, FIDE refused, and negotiations broke down. After the contract deadline passed, FIDE declared that the title match would be played between Xie Jun and Galliamova. The forfeited Candidates match was to be resurrected as a title match! The 1999 match, with a venue split between Kazan and Shenyang, was won by Xie Jun (+5-3=7).

A year later, at New Delhi 2000, Xie Jun defended her title by winning the first Women's Championship played with the knockout format. She beat her compatriot Qin Kanying (+1-0=3) in the final match of the six round event.

The Chinese dominance was reconfirmed when Zhu Chen beat Alexandra Kosteniuk (+2-2=0; +1-1=0; +2-0=0) in the final match of the Moscow 2001 knockout event.

Her climb up the ranks once seemed to put her on target for the world championship, but although she has played many winning games against some of the world's best players, she has yet to win a major tournament. She has also been unable to beat former champion Garry Kasparov in any of their encounters in standard time control games. In 2002, she finally beat Kasparov in a rapid game of the "Russia vs The Rest of the World 2002" tournament.

This is what Johannes Fischer wrote in "KARL das kulturelle Schachmagazin":

"Seit ihrer Kindheit erregt Judit Polgar die Gemuter. Sie ist die jungste und erfolgreichste der drei Polgar-Schwestern und damit Teil eines paedagogischen Experiments von Vater Laszlo Polgar, der glaubt, Genie sei nicht angeboren, sondern anerzogen. Den Beweis fuer diese These versuchte er mit radikalen Methoden anzutreten: Da er der Ansicht war, die Schule wuerde Kinder nicht ausreichend fordern, erzog er seine Tochter zusammen mit seiner Frau Klara zu Hause. Spater schilderte Judit in einem Interview einen fuer sie und ihre Schwestern typischen Tag: "Wir stehen um sechs auf. Um sieben gehen wir in einen Tischtennis-Klub, wo wir zwei bis drei Stunden Tischtennis spielen. Dann gehen wir nach Hause, spielen Schach, empfangen Gaste, Journalisten. Und danach horen wir Musik, lesen ein bisschen. Normalerweise spielen wir sechs bis acht Stunden Schach am Tag." (Dirk Jan ten Geuzendam, "Interview with Judit Polgar", New in Chess , 8/1989, S.34).

Die Erfolge von Laszlos Methoden sind bekannt, aber rufen gemischte Gefuehle hervor: kann man, darf man so seine Kinder erziehen? Erinnert dieses Experiment nicht an Kinder, die mit aller Gewalt zu Turnstars gemacht wurden und spater mit fruh verbrauchten Korpern bitter fuer die fruehen Erfolge zahlen mussten? Aber zeigt dieses Experiment nicht auch, wie schlecht es um die Erziehung von Kindern in unserer Gesellschaft bestellt ist, wie viel Potenzial bei fast jedem verloren geht, eben weil er oder sie nicht richtig gefordert wird?

In der Schachwelt brachten Judit Polgars Erfolge den Glauben ins Wanken, Frauen konnten von Natur aus kein Schach spielen, denn die Ungarin schien genug Talent und Energie zu besitzen, um den Weltmeisterthorn der Maenner einnehmen zu konnen. Die Reaktionen folgten prompt. Herabsetzung, wie z.B. durch den ehemaligen Kasparow-Trainer Alexander Nikitin, der nach der 4,5:5,5 Niederlage von Boris Spasski in einem 1993 in Budapest ausgetragenen Wettkampf gegen Judit Polgar, schrieb: "Ich verstehe noch immer nicht ganz, warum Boris sich auf diese Sache eingelassen hat ... Wenn er verliert, wurden die Leute sagen: gegen ein kleines Madchen verlieren, wie tief kann man sinken?" (New in Chess , 2/93, S. 46) oder das Beschworen der Natur wie durch Garry Kasparow 1990: "Es ist unvermeidlich, dass die Natur gegen sie arbeitet, und das sehr bald. Sie besitzt phantastisches Schachtalent, aber sie ist trotz allem eine Frau. Das liegt alles an den Unvollkommenheiten der weiblichen Psyche. Keine Frau kann einen langeren Kampf durchhalten. Sie kampft gegen die Gewohnheit von Jahrhunderten und Jahrhunderten, seit Anbeginn der Welt." (Zitiert in Alex Dunne, 2010 Chess Oddities, S.78)

Viele junge Schachspielerinnen sehen in Judit Polgar ein Rollenmodell, anderen jedoch ist sie unbequem. Aber nicht, weil sie regelmassig gegen Polgar verlieren. Im Gegenteil: Judit Polgar weigert sich in schwach besetzten Frauenturnieren anzutreten und spielt nur bei den Mannern mit. Einzige Ausnahme waren die Schacholympiaden 1988 in Saloniki und 1990 in Novi Sad, wo sie mit ihren Schwestern Zsuzsa und Sofie sowie Idliko Madl beide Male Gold fuer Ungarn gewann. Judit Polgar hat nie versucht, Frauenweltmeisterin zu werden, obwohl sie als mit Abstand beste Schachspielerin der Welt damit leicht Titel und Tausende von Dollar hatte gewinnen konnen.

Judits Weigerung in Frauenturnieren zu spielen, bricht ein Tabu. Schliesslich sollte es zu denken geben, wenn die beste Frau der Welt Frauenturniere vermeidet. Vielleicht verfuhren die leichteren Frauenturniere, in denen schneller und mit viel weniger Einsatz Erfolge zu erzielen sind, talentierte Frauen, ihr Talent nicht zu entfalten? Diese Uberlegung wiederum gefahrdet die Nische Frauenschach. Sicher, eine Frau mag sich in der Mannerwelt des Schachs nicht immer wohl fuhlen, aber die Frauen, die dabei bleiben und halbwegs gut spielen, kommen in den Genuss einer Reihe von Privilegien. Denn anders als im Berufsleben erhalten sie fuer die gleiche Leistung nicht weniger, sondern mehr Geld. In der Frauenbundesliga, bei Frauenturnieren und in zahlreichen Open, bei denen Sonderpreise fur Frauen ausgelobt werden. Mehr Aufmerksamkeit bekommen sie sowieso. Elisabeth Pahtz, bei den Frauen in Deutschland die Nummer Zwei, zieht mehr mediales Interesse auf sich, als die gesamte deutsche Herrenmannschaft aus Alexander Graf, Christopher Lutz, Jan Gustafsson, Leonid Kritz und Klaus Bischoff.

Aber die Trennung in Manner- und Frauenschach ermutigt talentierte Madchen nicht nur, sich mit weniger zu begnugen, als sie erreichen konnten, sie ist auch in anderer Hinsicht problematisch. Gerne schmuckt sich das Schach damit, Eigenschaften wie Selbstdisziplin, analytisches Denken, uberlegtes Handeln usw. zu vermitteln, die im Leben, insbesondere im Berufsleben, wichtig sind. Wenn dies stimmt, was sagt das dann uber die Chancen der Frauen im Berufsleben? Ist der Umstand, dass so wenige Frauen gut Schach spielen dann nicht ein Beleg dafuer, dass Frauen im Arbeitsleben noch immer benachteiligt werden? Mit anderen Worten: Schneiden sie in Sachen berufliche Qualifikation naturgegeben schlechter ab als Manner? Die Zahlen sprechen eine andere Sprache. Erst kurzlich veroffentlichte der Spiegel eine Untersuchung, die zeigt, dass die Schulnoten und Universitatsabschlusse von Frauen im Vergleich zu denen der Manner immer besser werden und in mehr und mehr Bereichen des Lebens besetzen Frauen zunehmend wichtige Positionen – trotz immer noch herrschender Benachteiligung.

Tatsachlich geht es bei der Diskussion um das Phanomen Judit Polgar um mehr als nur Schach: Das Selbstverständnis als Mann und Frau, gesellschaftliche Rollen und scheinbare Gewissheiten, mit denen man aufgewachsen ist, stehen auf dem Spiel. Und das Schone am Phanomen Judit Polgar ist, dass es alte Denkmuster aufbricht. So wurde ihr seit Beginn ihrer Laufbahn prophezeit, ihre Schachkarriere wurde spatestens dann einen Knick bekommen, wenn sie eine Familie grundet. Jetzt, wo sie im August ihr erstes Kind bekommen hat, wird man sehen, ob das zutrifft. Vielleicht straft sie alle Pessimisten Lugen und spielt nach Babypause besser als je zuvor. Es ware ihr und der Schachwelt zu gonnen."

The Champions

Below I list the female chess worldchampions. For each champion I provide a list of links with details about her.

1. 1927-1944 Vera Menchik (1906-1944) from Czechoslovakia/England. Born in Moscow of Czechoslavakian-British extraction, Vera Menchik was easily the strongest female player of her time, having at one time or other beaten most of the strongest players in the world (the defeated became members of the "Vera Menchik Club"). In 1927 she won the first Women's World Championship tournament with a score of 10.5 out of 11. She defended her title with ease in Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931, Folkestone 1933, Warsaw 1935, Stockholm 1937 and Buenos Aires 1939.

Menchik 1 Menchik 2 Menchik 3

2. 1944-1950 There was no champion(ship)
3. 1950-1953 Liudmila Rudenko (1904-1986) from the Soviet Union. Ludmila Rudenko from Byelorussian started her career by winning the women's champion of Moscow in 1928. She went on to win the Women's World Championship tournament in 1949, with a score of 11.5 out of 15. She held the title until 1953.

Rudenko 1 Rudenko 3

4. 1953-1956 Elizaveta Bykova (1913-1989) from the Soviet Union. Elizaveta Bykova was coincidentally born in a town called Bogolyubovo in Russia. In 1938 she became women's champion of Moscow, which she subsequently won a number of times. She was first the USSR Championships of 1947, 1948 and 1950. She wan the Candidates in Moscow in 1952 and had the right to challenge Ludmilla Rudenko. The match, in 1953, was a tight struggle, but Bykova won with 8:6. So she became, 40 years old, the third Ladies World Champion.

Bykova 1 Bykova 2

5. 1956-1958 Olga Rubtsova (1909-1994) from the Soviet Union. At 17 Olga won the first USSR Women's Championship. That was in 1927. After that she won a great number of tournaments, including the USSR Women's Championships of 1931, 1937 and 1949 and the Moscow Championships of 1953 and 1954. In 1956 she defeated Elizaveta Bykova to become the fourth women's world champion.

Rubtsova 1 Rubtsova 2

6. 1958-1962 Elizaveta Bykova (1913-1989) from the Soviet Union. In the Revanchematch against Rubtsova, in 1958, Bykova was the strongest. In 1960 Bykova was the winner in the WC Match against Kira Sworykina (8½:4½). In that same year she also won an International Tournament in Amsterdam.

Bykova 1 Bykova 2

7. 1962-1978 Nona Gaprindashvili (1941- ) from the Soviet Union. She was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was the greatest female player of her generation. She won the world championship title in 1962 and defended it three times. Gaprindashvili played in men's tournaments, winning amongst others Hastings 1963/64 and and tied for first at Lone Pine 1977. In 1978 she came second and earned a full male GM title.

Gaprindashvili 1 Gaprindashvili 2 Gaprindashvili 3

8. 1978-1991 Maia Chiburdanidze (1961- ) from the Soviet Union. The Georgian was one of the first women chess prodigies, becoming the youngest WIM in the history of the game (in 1974 at the age of 13). Her best results were first at Brasov 1974, 1st at Tbilisi 1975 and most impressive of all, second in the 1976 Tbilisi Women's Interzonal and thus qualifying for the 1977 Candidates, wherein, she defeated Alla Kushnir in the final. In 1978, she became Women World Champion by winning a match against Nona Gaprindashvili by 8.5-6.5.

Chiburdanidze 1

9. 1991-1996 Xie Jun (1970- ) born in Beijing, China. Xie Jun was and became junior Xiangqi (Chinese chess) champion of Beijing at the age of six. She was later persuaded to take up chess. She won the World Women's Champion title a total of four times: in 1991 against Chiburdanize, 1993 against Ioseliani, 1999 against Galliamova and 2000 against Qin Kanying in the first FIDE knock-out championship. Xie Jun was directly responsible for a dramatic increase in popularity of chess in China.

Jun 1 Jun 2 Jun 3

10. 1996-1999 Susan Polgar (1969- ) from Hungary. The oldest of the famous Polgar sisters initially refused to play in women's tournaments, becoming a male grandmaster in 1991 at the age of 23. In 1993 she decided to play for the women's world championship, but did not win the title after a 12-12 draw against Nana Ioseliani. In 1996 she became world champion after beating Xie Jun, and lost the title in 1999 when she refused to play under FIDE's new knockout rules. Susan has also won the Women’s World Chess Champion titles in rapid and blitz chess (both in 1992).

Polgar 1 Polgar 2 Polgar 3 Polgar 4 Polgar 5 Polgar 6

11. 1999-2001 Xie Jun (1970- ) from China. (see 1991-1996)

Jun 1 Jun 2 Jun 3

12. 2001-2004 Zhu Chen (1976- ) from China. The Chinese player Zhu Chen became Women's World Champion in the FIDE knock-out event in Moscow 2001, beating Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk in the process. In the recent world championship in Elista Zhu failed to participate due to pregnancy and attached scheduling problems.

Chen 1 Chen 2 Chen 3 Chen 4 Chen 5

13. 2004-2006 Antoaneta Stefanova (1979- ) from Bulgaria. This top Bulgarian female player won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship (June 5th 2004) in Elista, Kalmykia, defeating Russian WGM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya in the final.

Stefanova 1 Stefanova 2 Stefanova 3 Stefanova 4 Stefanova 5 Stefanova 6 Stefanova 7

14. 2006-2008 Xu Yuhua (1976- ) a WGM from China. She won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship (March 25th 2006) in Ekaterinburg, Russia, defeating Russian IM Alisa Galimova in the final. The knockout event had 64 participants, with both former world champion Zhu Chen and reigning world champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Xu Yuhua was 3 months pregnant at the time...

Xu Yuhua 1 Xu Yuhua 2

15. 2008-2010 Alexandra Kosteniuk (1984- ) a WGM from Russia. She won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship (September 18th 2008) in Nalchik, in the Kabardino-Balkaria region of Russia. 64 players were eligible to play in the knock-out event, which had a prize fund of US $450,000. Due to the tensions in the region the Georgian players and a few others decided not to participate. Kosteniuk defeated the 14-year-old Chinese wondergirl Hou Yifan in the final.

Kosteniuk 1 Kosteniuk 2

16. 2010-2012 Hou Yifan (1994- ) a GM from China. She won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship (December 24th 2010) in Hatay, Turkey. It was a 64-player knockout tournament, with two-game mini-matches qualifying a player to the next round, until the final and 6th round, which was a four-game match to determine the champion. Hou Yifab defeated compatriot Lufei Ruan in the tie-break games of the final to become the youngest World Champion.

Hou Yifan 1 Hou Yifan 2

17. 2012-2013 Anna Ushenina (1985- ) an IM from Ukrania (winning the World Title earns her the title GM). She won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship (November 2012) in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia. It was a 64-player knockout tournament, with two-game mini-matches qualifying a player to the next round, until the final and 6th round, which was a four-game match to determine the champion. Anna Ushenina defeated ex World Champion Antoaneta Stefanove in the tie-break games of the final to become the 14th World Champion.

Anna Ushenina

18. 2013-2015 Hou Yifan (1994- ) a GM from China. As the winner of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011-2012, Hou won the right to challenge Anna Ushenina in a 10 game match for the world title. Scheduled from September 10 to the 27th, the Women's World Chess Championship 2013 was played in Taizhou, Jiangsu, China. She won the match in 7 games with a 5.5-1.5 score (+4 =3, TPR 2730) regaining her championship title.

Hou Yifan 1 Hou Yifan 2

19. 2015-2016 Mariya Olegivna Muzychuk (1992- ) an IM from Ukrania (winning the World Title earns her the title GM). She won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship (April 2015) in Sochi, Russia, after defeating Natalia Pogonina (Russia) 2,5-1,5 in the final match. She is expected to defend her title against Hou Yifan in the Women's World Chess Championship (match) later in 2015.

Mariya Muzychuk

20. 2016-2017 Hou Yifan (1994- ) a GM from China. In 2010, she became the youngest Women's World Chess Champion in history by winning the 2010 Women's World Championship in Hatay, Turkey at age 16. In the Women's World Chess Championship 2012 she was eliminated early, but she regained the title in 2013, defeating Anna Ushenina. She then lost the world title by not playing in the 2015 Championship for scheduling reasons. Hou then defeated former world champion Mariya Muzychuk in the 2016 World Championship match to regain the title. The scheduled 10-game match was held from 1 to 14 March 2016 in Lviv, Ukraine. Hou Yifan won convincingly, not losing a single game.

Hou Yifan 1 Hou Yifan 2

21. 2017-xxxx Tan Zhongyi (1991- ) an WGM from China (winning the World Title earns her the title GM). In the final match of the World Championship in Tehran Tan Zhongyi defeated Anna Muzychuk on tie-break with 1,5-0,5. The championshio was a 64-player knock-out tournament. The final tie-break of the Women's World Chess Championship took place in the Espinas Palace Hotel in Tehran March 3. Four previous games with classical time control finished with 2:2 score. Some top female players had decided not to attend the tournament. Hou Yifan, the outgoing women's world champion and top ranked female player, decided not to enter the tournament because of dissatisfaction with FIDE's Women's World Championship system. The 2015 Women's World Champion, Mariya Muzychuk, and US Women's Champion Nazi Paikidze also elected not to attend, out of protest at the tournament's location in Iran, where it is mandatory for women to wear a hijab in public. Other notable absentees were women's world number 4 Humpy Koneru and 7-time US Women's Champion Irina Krush.

Tan Zhongyi

Below some other links to female champions:

• Weiblichen Weltmeister
• Women vs Veterans

And, now for something completely different (and indeed: if you take a look at Female chessplayers, why not at Jewish and Black chessplayers?):

• The Great Jewish Chess Champions
• The Chess Drum, the original Pan-African Chess site