The Women’s World Champions
The Women’s world championship was established in 1927 and has been contested continuously since 1950. The format never seems to be settled, being a mixture of all-play-all tournaments, matches and knockout tournaments over the years.
| Vera Menchik | 1927–1944 | Russia/Czechoslovakia/UK | ||
| [left vacant] | 1944–1950 | N/A (World War II) | ||
| Lyudmila Rudenko | 1950–1953 | Soviet Union | ||
| Elisaveta Bykova | 1953–1956 | 1958–1962 | Soviet Union | |
| Olga Rubtsova | 1956–1958 | Soviet Union | ||
| Elisaveta Bykova | 1958–1962 | Soviet Union | ||
| Nona Gaprindashvili | 1962–1978 | Soviet Union | ||
| Maia Chiburdanidze | 1978–1991 | Soviet Union | ||
| Xie Jun | 1991–1996 | 1999–2001 | China | |
| Susan Polgar | 1996–1999 | Hungary | ||
| Xie Jun | 1999–2001 | China | ||
| Zhu Chen | 2001–2004 | China | ||
| Antoaneta Stefanova | 2004–2006 | Bulgaria | ||
| Xu Yuhua | 2006–2008 | China | ||
| Alexandra Kosteniuk | 2008–2010 | Russia | ||
| Hou Yifan | 2010–2012 | 2013–2015 | 2016–2017 | China |
| Anna Ushenina | 2012–2013 | Ukraine | ||
| Hou Yifan | 2013–2015 | China | ||
| Mariya Muzychuk | 2015–2016 | Ukraine | ||
| Hou Yifan | 2016–2017 | China | ||
| Tan Zhongyi | 2017–2018 | China | ||
| Ju Wenjun | 2018– | China |
Chess Championship games: https://lichess.org/page/world-championships
Vera Menchik
Vera Menchik-Stevenson was the first Women’s World Champion and held the title for many years (becoming Champion 8 times).
She was also the first woman to compete at the top level, and had wins against many masters, including Euwe (twice) around the time he was a World Championship contender.
At her first tournament, there was a certain amount of snide comment from the men: one even suggested there should be set up a ‘Vera Menchik Club’, as a group for any men unlucky enough to lose to a mere woman. Of course Becker was its first member! That sort of nonsense should have died there and then but I fear it has not.
She wasn’t normally a flashy player but was deadly with her slow-building attacks and deceptive counters. Here she comes up with the most attractive way to obtain Blackburne’s mate — what a final move!
Lyudmila Rudenko
FIDE re-founded the Championship in 1950, when the title was won by Rudenko, then aged 45. She was a champion swimmer as well as a chessplayer.
Here she is beating a powerful rival with in the championship tournament one of her favourite gnarly hypermodern White openings. The second and third placed players were later champions, and contested a three-way tournament in 1956.
Elisaveta Bykova
Twice winning the Championship in the 1950s, Bykova was a constant advocate for women’s chess through her writing.
Her match with Rudenko was decisive: 5-2 with no draws!
Olga Rubtsova
Rubtsova only player, male or female, to become world champion in both over-the-board and correspondence chess.
This was the shortest game of the three-way tournament of 1956: won in a Pawn endgame!
Nona Gaprindashvili
Gaprindashvili was the first woman to gain the GM title and her greatest triumph was her tie for first place at Lone Pine 1977, coming ahead of any number of GMs and future GMs while still only an IM herself.
She had an aggressive style and played late into her life. Here she upsets Judit Polgar with a neat finish.
Maia Chiburdanidze
Like Gaprindashvili, a Georgian player, Chiburdanidze had a marked attacking style and dominated her generation of women players, taking the title at 17.
This attractive game was played just before Short got the GM title.
Xie Jun
The first of the Chinese wave of women players, Xie also had a lively attacking style and had two separate reigns as Champion.
I’d normally show her victory against Short, but I liked this one better. Larsen had dropped out of the elite of chess some time earlier but was always a formidable opponent.
Polgar Susan (Zsuzsa)
The oldest Polgar sister was also the youngest player to get the GM title at 15 and change, beating Fischer’s record (since beaten in turn).
Since winning the Women’s Championship title, Polgar settled in the US and has focussed on teaching and the development of children’s chess.
Her match against Xie had many decisive games for both players (Xie won the second game in 17 moves!).
Zhu Chen
Zhu beat Kosteniuk in a close final in 2001. She gave up her title when the proposed event clashed with her pregnancy.
Zhu now lives and works in Qatar.
This powerful game is from the Championship match.
Antoaneta Stefanova
Stefanova was the first World Girls U10 Champion, and first represented Bulgaria in senior chess in an Olympiad at age 13. She was victorious in the 64-player knockout in 2004, and narrowly lost to Ushenina in 2012.
In later life, she has turned to politics (mainstream politics, not chess politics).
Her style is often as aggressive as any of her predecessors
Xu Yuhua
Following Xie’s lead, Xu won the big knockout event in 2006, winning two games as Black against Galliamova.
Here is the second and decisive game, where Xu had to play calmly facing a White advantage:
Alexandra Kosteniuk
Kosteniuk made a big splash in the world of women’s chess, with many tournament victories and publicity events.
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, she plays under the Swiss flag. She no longer is at the top of women’s chess but continues to play and has a podcast of chess tips.
Here’s a crisp win as Black from her winning run (beating 14-year-old Hou Yifan in the final):
Hou Yifan
The youngest female GM and the youngest Women’s World Champion for the first time at 16, and twice more since. Hou has transformed from brilliant prodigy to a formidable adult player, preferring these days mostly open (mixed) events, and in 2015 preferred to play one of those than fight again for her world title. She was the first woman to crack the ‘elite GM’ 2700 rating and has been the No.1 ranked woman in the world since September 2015 [posted Autumn 2023 https://ratings.fide.com/top_lists.phtml?list=women ]. She is now semi-retired from chess and works as a University professor.
Anna Ushenina
Ushenina won on tie-break against Stefanova in 2012.
The deciding game features many nice points — sacrifice and Zugzwang among them
Mariya Muzychuk
One of a pair of strong chess-playing sisters, Mariya Muzychuk declined to defend her titles in 2017 when she found she would have to submit to local restrictions on movement and dress when the Championship was held in Iran.
Muzychuk has great tactical alertness, and leans towards open positions and attacking play, as shown in this game. Koneru has great positional understanding but collapsed in the complications.
Zhongyi Tan
The generation of Chinese players to follow Xie has a lot of strength in depth.
Here’s a game from her winning performance in 2017, showing some nifty Rook play.
Ju Wenjun
Ju won a close match against Zhongyi in 2018 but has been a powerful force since then. The match format (as opposed to the accident-prone knockout tournaments) has made it more likely that the favourite wins.
Wenjun broke through the ‘super-GM’ rating barrier at ELO 2600 but has slipped since; Hou stands at the top
Here’s a terrific fighting win against a strong young rival, at a point where she was behind in the match. A visit to Tal’s ‘deep dark forest‘!
Tal originally expressed his creative approach as follows:
“What do you do, when you need to win? Try to give mate? But your opponent will anticipate the attack already at birth and will take all necessary measures. Exploit positional weaknesses? Your opponent will not even think of creating them! Therefore nowadays the two players often deliberately deviate from the generally recognised laws, turning into a ‘dense forest’ of unexplored variations, onto a narrow mountain path, where there is room for only one. Too many players now know very well not only the chess multiplication tables, but also chess logarithms, and therefore in order to achieve success, you sometimes have to try and demonstrate that two times two is five… It stands to reason that, with such play, which demands great physical and emotional intensity and enormous nervous output, the percentage of possible mistakes automatically increases. But such games afford everyone much greater pleasure…”
[Often given as “You must take your opponent into a deep dark forest where 2+2=5, and the path leading out is only wide enough for one.”]