Xie Jun is a Chinese chess grandmaster and is the first Asian woman to become a chess grandmaster. She had two separate reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001. Xie is one of three women to have at least two separate reigns, besides Elisaveta Bykova and Hou Yifan. Xie Jun is the current president of the Chinese Chess Association. In 2019, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.
Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk is a Russian and Swiss chess grandmaster who was the Women's World Chess Champion from 2008 to 2010 and Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021. She was European women's champion in 2004 and a two-time Russian Women's Chess Champion. Kosteniuk won the team gold medal playing for Russia at the Women's Chess Olympiads of 2010, 2012 and 2014; the Women's World Team Chess Championship of 2017; and the Women's European Team Chess Championships of 2007, 2009, 2011, 2015 and 2017; and the Women's Chess World Cup 2021. In 2022, due to sanctions imposed on Russian players after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she switched federations, and as of March 2023 she represents Switzerland.
Rustam Kasimdzhanov is an Uzbek chess grandmaster and former FIDE World Champion (2004-05). He was Asian champion in 1998.
Zhao Xue is a Chinese chess player. She is the 24th Chinese person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Zhao was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2016, and at the Women's World Team Chess Championship in 2007, 2009 and 2011. She has competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2015, 2017 and 2018, reaching the semifinals in 2010.
Rani Hamid is a Bangladeshi chess player. She became the country's first Woman International Master in 1985. She has been the national champion 20 times, most recently at the 38th Women National Championship at the age of 75. She had won her 19th National Women's Chess Championship title in August 2018. She is also a three-time winner of the British Women's Chess Championship. She became Zonal Champion in 2018, received the Journalists Choice Award in the Chess World Cup 2018 in Russia, and won the gold medal in Commonwealth Chess 2017 in Delhi.
Murray Graham Chandler is a New Zealand chess grandmaster. In the 1980s, he gained British citizenship and represented England at six Chess Olympiads. He has since returned to New Zealand. Chandler is also known as a chess writer, chess publishing executive and occasional organiser of chess tournaments.
Alexander Vladimirovich Ivanov is a Soviet-born American chess grandmaster. Born in Omsk, present-day Russia, he moved to the United States in 1988. FIDE awarded him his grandmaster title in 1991. He lives in Massachusetts with his wife, fellow chess player and Woman International Master Esther Epstein.
Alisa Marić, PhD is a Serbian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) and International Master (IM).
Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant is a Georgian -born Scottish Chess Grandmaster.
Gawain Christopher Bernard Jones is an English chess grandmaster and three-time British Chess Champion. He was awarded the grandmaster title by FIDE in 2007. He competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2013, 2017 and 2019.
Hans-Joachim Hecht is a German chess player and twice the West German national champion. His first name is often abbreviated to Hajo.
Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and Women's World Chess Champion from April 2015 to March 2016. She is also a twice women's champion of Ukraine, World Team and European Team champion with Ukraine in 2013. Muzychuk has experienced multiple successes with Ukraine at the Women's Chess Olympiad winning gold in 2022, silver in 2018 and bronze in 2012, 2014 and 2016.
Stephen John Solomon is an Australian chess International Master (IM). He became a FIDE Master (FM) in 1986, and an International Master (IM) in 1990. He won the Australian Junior Chess Championship in 1980 and the Australian Chess Championship in 2008.
Stuart Fancy is a Papua New Guinean chess FIDE Master (FM).
Paul Anthony Garbett is a chess International Master (IM).
Vivian Joyce Smith is a New Zealand chess player. She has represented New Zealand in fifteen Chess Olympiads, and won the New Zealand Women's Chess Championship a record ten times. She is a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit for her services to chess, and holds the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM).
Sue Yuchan Maroroa Jones was a New Zealand-English chess player who held the FIDE title of Woman International Master (WIM). She represented New Zealand in five Chess Olympiads and England at the 2014 Chess Olympiad.
Yuri Sergeyevich Balashov is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 1973.
Carissa Shiwen Yip is an American chess player and the winner of the 2021, 2023, and 2024 U.S. Women's Chess Championship. In September 2019, she was the top rated female player in the United States and the youngest female chess player to defeat a grandmaster, which she did at age ten. In October 2019, she became the youngest American woman in history to qualify for the title of International Master until surpassed by Alice Lee in June 2023.
Shohreh Bayat is an Iranian chess arbiter based in England. She was chief arbiter of the Women's World Chess Championship 2020. Bayat is an International Arbiter for FIDE. She was awarded an International Women of Courage Award in 2021.
