Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the title can be revoked for cheating.
Nona Gaprindashvili is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 she was the first woman ever to be awarded the FIDE title of Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive play style, Gaprindashvili has been recognized with entry into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2013 and the Presidential Order of Excellence in 2015.
Robert Eugene Byrne was an American chess player and chess author who held the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). He won the U.S. Championship in 1972, and was a World Chess Championship Candidate in 1974. Byrne represented the United States nine times in Chess Olympiads from 1952 to 1976 and won seven medals. He was the chess columnist from 1972 to 2006 for The New York Times, which ran his final column on November 12, 2006. Byrne worked as a university professor for many years, before becoming a chess professional in the early 1970s.
Pal Charles Benko was a Hungarian and American chess player, author, and composer of endgame studies and chess problems.
International Correspondence Chess Federation (ICCF) was founded on 26 March 1951 as a new appearance of the International Correspondence Chess Association (ICCA), which was founded in 1945, as successor of the Internationaler Fernschachbund (IFSB), founded on 2 December 1928.
Guy West is an Australian chess player who holds the FIDE title of International Master (IM). He is a former Australian Chess Champion.
The World Senior Chess Championship is an annual chess tournament established in 1991 by FIDE, the World Chess Federation.
Below is a list of events in chess during the year 2008, and a list of the top ten players during that year:
Harika Dronavalli is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). She has won three bronze medals in the Women's World Chess Championship, in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Harika was honored with the Arjuna Award for the year 2007–08 by the government of India. In 2016, she won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix event at Chengdu, China and rose up from world no. 11 to world no. 5 in FIDE women's ranking. In 2019, she was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the field of sports.
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and norms. Once awarded, titles are held for life except in cases of fraud or cheating. Open titles may be earned by all players, while women's titles are restricted to female players. Many strong female players hold both open and women's titles. FIDE also awards titles for arbiters, organizers and trainers. Titles for correspondence chess, chess problem composition and chess problem solving are no longer administered by FIDE.
Ana Matnadze is a Georgian-Spanish chess player. FIDE awarded her the titles Woman Grandmaster (WGM), in 2002, and International Master (IM), in 2006. Matnadze was European and world girls champion in her age category.
Eva Moser was an Austrian chess player. She was awarded the titles International Master (IM), in 2004, and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), in 2003, by FIDE. Moser won both the absolute and women's Austrian chess championships. She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008.
Nazí Paikidze, sometimes also referred to as Nazí Paikidze-Barnes, is a Russian-born Georgian–American chess player. She holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM), which FIDE awarded her in 2012 and 2010 respectively. Paikidze was twice world girls' champion and four-time European girls' champion in her age category, and is a twice U.S. women's champion.
Nino Maisuradze is a Georgian and French chess player. She was awarded the title of Woman Grandmaster by FIDE in 2009. Maisuradze is a two-time French women's champion.
The Dubai Open Chess Tournament, also known as the Sheikh Rashid Bin Hamdan Cup, is an annual open chess tournament in Dubai, UAE that is usually held in April. First held in 1999 by the Dubai Chess and Culture Club with the aim of giving exposure to young talent in UAE, the Dubai Open Chess Tournament is today one of the most well-known and strongest open tournaments in the world. The inaugural event in 1999 was won by chess grandmaster Vladimir Akopian. The 18th edition of the Dubai Open Chess Tournament was held from April 11–19, 2016, at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. It was won by British grandmaster Gawain Jones, who also ruled the Dubai Open Blitz Cup 2016.
Bibisara Assaubayeva is a Kazakh chess player. Assaubayeva holds the titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster. She is a two-time Women's World Blitz Chess Champion. She was given the award of Outstanding Female Chess Player of 2021 in Asia by FIDE. She entered the Guinness World Records book in 2022, for her achievement as the youngest women's World Blitz Chess Champion, which she became in 2021 and retained in 2022.
Alireza Firouzja is an Iranian and French chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carlsen by more than five months.
Women represent a small minority of chess players at all ages and levels. Female chess players today generally compete in a mix of open tournaments and women's tournaments, the latter of which are most prominent at or near the top level of women's chess and at youth levels. Modern top-level women's tournaments help provide a means for some participants to be full-time professional chess players. The majority of these tournaments are organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and revolve around the World Championship cycle, which culminates in a match to decide the Women's World Chess Champion. Beyond those events, among the most prominent women's tournaments are women's and girls' national and continental championships.
Gibraltar 
Vladislav Artemiev 
Karthikeyan Murali 
Kaido Külaots 
Haik Martirosyan 
Skopje 
Nils Grandelius 
Kacper Piorun 
Reykjavík 
Constantin Lupulescu 
Alireza Firouzja 
Karlsruhe 
Anton Korobov 
Philadelphia 
Lê Quang Liêm 
Riga 
Šarūnas Šulskis 
Astana 
England
China
Georgia 
Azerbaijan 
Stavanger 
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave 
Newburgh 
Abidjan 
Amsterdam 
