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Inspiring women

The women who changed the game

World champions, record-breakers and trailblazers. Every girl who sits down at a board today is following a path these players opened up.

  1. Portrait of Judit Polgár
    Photo: Przemysław Jahr, CC BY-SA 3.0

    The strongest woman player of all time

    Judit Polgár

    Born 1976 · Hungary

    Judit Polgár is widely regarded as the strongest female player in history. She is the only woman to reach the world top 10 and a rating over 2700, and was the world’s top-rated woman for 26 years straight. She chose to compete against the best players of any gender, and in 2002 beat world No. 1 Garry Kasparov.

  2. Portrait of Vera Menchik
    Photo: Underwood & Underwood, Public domain

    First Women’s World Champion

    Vera Menchik

    1906–1944 · Czechoslovakia & England

    Vera Menchik was the first Women’s World Champion, and the longest-reigning: she held the title from 1927 until 1944 and won it eight times. In an era when women mostly played only each other, she was the only woman competing in master tournaments against the best players in the world, and beat several of them, including future world champion Max Euwe.

  3. Portrait of Nona Gaprindashvili
    Photo: Jack de Nijs / Anefo, CC0

    First woman Grandmaster

    Nona Gaprindashvili

    Born 1941 · Georgia

    Known for her fearless, attacking style, Nona Gaprindashvili was Women’s World Champion from 1962 to 1978. In 1978 she became the first woman ever awarded the full Grandmaster title, and in 2013 she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.

  4. Portrait of Maia Chiburdanidze
    Photo: GFHund, CC BY 3.0

    World Champion at 17

    Maia Chiburdanidze

    Born 1961 · Georgia

    Maia Chiburdanidze took the Women’s World Championship from Nona Gaprindashvili in 1978, aged 17, and held it until 1991. She was the second woman to become a Grandmaster, in 1984, and played on nine gold-medal-winning teams at the Women’s Chess Olympiad.

  5. Portrait of Pia Cramling
    Photo: Stefan64, CC BY-SA 3.0

    Grandmaster for over three decades

    Pia Cramling

    Born 1963 · Sweden

    Pia Cramling became the fifth woman to earn the Grandmaster title, in 1992, and has been one of the world’s strongest women players since the early 1980s, ranking as the top-rated woman three times. She twice won the European Women’s Championship, and won the gold medal for the best performance on top board at the Women’s Chess Olympiad in 1984, 1988 and again in 2022, almost 40 years after the first. She has played for Sweden in both the open and women’s Olympiads, at times on the same team as her daughter, Anna Cramling.

  6. Portrait of Hou Yifan
    Photo: Andreas Kontokanis, CC BY-SA 2.0

    Four-time World Champion, and a professor

    Hou Yifan

    Born 1994 · China

    A chess prodigy, Hou Yifan was the youngest woman ever to qualify for the Grandmaster title and the youngest ever to win the Women’s World Championship, which she went on to win four times. She is the second-highest-rated woman of all time, and alongside chess built an academic career, becoming a professor at Peking University.

  7. Portrait of Phiona Mutesi
    Photo: Phiona Foundation

    The Queen of Katwe

    Phiona Mutesi

    Born 1996 · Uganda

    Phiona Mutesi grew up in Katwe, one of the poorest neighbourhoods of Kampala, and found chess through an after-school program. She went on to represent Uganda at four Women’s Chess Olympiads, and in 2012 she and Ivy Amoko became the first titled women players in Ugandan chess history. The same year she became the first girl to win the open National Junior Championship. Her story is told in the book Queen of Katwe and in the 2016 Disney film of the same name, directed by Mira Nair, with Madina Nalwanga as Phiona and Lupita Nyong’o as her mother.

  8. Portrait of Ju Wenjun
    Photo: Frans Peeters, CC BY-SA 2.0

    Five-time Women’s World Champion

    Ju Wenjun

    Born 1991 · China

    Ju Wenjun first won the Women’s World Championship in 2018 and has defended it again and again, in 2018, 2020, 2023 and 2025. She has also been Women’s World Blitz Champion and twice Women’s World Rapid Champion, and in 2017 became only the fifth woman to reach a 2600 rating.

On screen

Films and documentaries

Films, documentaries and a series about women and girls in chess. Every one is worth a watch, and even better watched together with a young player.

Posters and stills belong to their studios and distributors.

Begin your chess journey today

Whether she’s six or sixty, every great player started with a first game. Send a few details and we’ll reply with available times and current rates. Parents and schools are welcome to enquire.

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