List of female chess players


This article lists female chess players that received official FIDE titles or are otherwise renowned.

History of women playing chess

From the Middle Ages through the 18th century, chess was a popular social pastime for both men and women of the upper classes. Mary, Queen of Scots, and Queen Elizabeth I played, and Thomas Jefferson wrote several times about Benjamin Franklin's playing chess in Paris with socially important women, including the Duchess of Bourbon Bathilde d'Orléans, who was "a chess player of about his force". Chess games between men and women were a common theme of European art and literature in the fourteenth through 18th centuries.
By the 19th century, however, the chess world had become dominated by male chess players. During the 20th century, female players made significant progress in breaking male dominance on the game, and a few female players could compete successfully with men.
By the mid-1980s a number of women were competing regularly in events with men. The country of Georgia produced some of the best women chess players of the later 20th century, including the first female International Grandmaster, Nona Gaprindashvili, who was awarded the title in 1978.
Judit Polgar was the first female player to compete in a World Chess Championship, in the 2005 edition. She is also the only female player to have defeated the reigning world number one in a game, when she beat Garry Kasparov in 2002. More recently, Hou Yifan has been the leading female player, winning the Biel GM tournament and being rated among the world's top hundred players for several years.

Grandmasters

There are currently 37 female players who hold the title of Grandmaster:
NameCountryBirth DateDateAgeWomen's World ChampionNotes
Nona Gaprindashvili1941-05-031978371962–1978First female grandmaster
Maia Chiburdanidze1961-01-171984231978–1991
Susan Polgár
1969-04-191991221996–1999
Judit Polgár1976-07-23199115–Youngest grandmaster ever at the time
Pia Cramling1963-04-23199229–
Xie Jun1970-10-301994231991–1996, 1999–2001
Zhu Chen
1976-03-162001252001–2004
Humpy Koneru1987-03-31200215–
Antoaneta Stefanova1979-04-192002232004–2006
Alexandra Kosteniuk1984-03-232004202008–2010direct award after EWC
Peng Zhaoqin
1968-05-08200436direct award after EWC
Hoang Thanh Trang
1980-04-25200727–
Kateryna Lahno
1989-12-27200717–
Xu Yuhua1976-10-292007302006–2008direct award after WWC
Marie Sebag1986-10-15200821–
Zhao Xue1985-04-06200823–
Hou Yifan1994-02-272008142010–2012, 2013–2015, 2016–2017Youngest ever female grandmaster
Nana Dzagnidze1987-01-01200821–
Monika Soćko1978-03-24200830–
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant
1968-07-19200940–
Tatiana Kosintseva1986-04-11200923–
Natalia Zhukova1979-06-05201030–
Elina Danielian1978-08-16201032–
Viktorija Čmilytė1983-08-06201026–
Nadezhda Kosintseva1985-01-14201126–
Harika Dronavalli1991-01-12201120–
Anna Muzychuk
1990-02-28201222–
Anna Ushenina1985-08-302012272012–2013direct award after WWC
Valentina Gunina1989-02-04201324–
Irina Krush1983-12-24201329–
Bela Khotenashvili1988-06-01201325–
Ju Wenjun1991-01-312014232018–
Mariya Muzychuk1992-09-212015222015–2016direct award after WWC
Lei Tingjie1997-03-13201719–
Tan Zhongyi1991-05-292017252017–2018direct award after WWC
Nino Batsiashvili1987-01-01201831–
Aleksandra Goryachkina1998-09-28201819–

There is also the title Woman Grandmaster, but the requirements for achieving it are lower. As of 2020, no woman has ever been the world champion. In September 2005, Judit Polgár of Hungary, then rated #8 in the world by the international chess organization FIDE, became the first woman to play for the World Championship title.

International Masters

Current

As of March 2020, the FIDE database lists 119 living women who hold the International Master title.

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