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The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 and 2021, with a rapid time control that affected players' online ratings.
The United States Chess Federation is the governing body for chess competition in the United States and represents the U.S. in The World Chess Federation (FIDE). USCF administers the official national rating system, awards national titles, sanctions over twenty national championships annually, and publishes two magazines: Chess Life and Chess Life Kids. The USCF was founded and incorporated in Illinois in 1939, from the merger of two older chess organizations. It is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri. Its membership as of 2020 as COVID hit was 97,000; as of 2024 the membership was 112,000.
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.
Koneru Humpy is an Indian chess player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgár's previous record by three months. Humpy is the first Indian female grandmaster.
Zhu Chen is a Chinese-born Qatari chess Grandmaster. In 1999, she became China's second women's world chess champion after Xie Jun, and China's 13th Grandmaster. In 2006, she obtained Qatari citizenship and since then has played for Qatar.
Hou Yifan is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and professor at Shenzhen University. She is the second highest rated female player of all time. A chess prodigy, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster and the youngest ever to win the Women's World Chess Championship.
The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis. Apart from determining the European champions, another objective of this tournament is to determine a number of players who qualify for the FIDE World Cup and the FIDE Women's World Cup.
The European Team Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more or less accords with the wider definition of Europe used in other events such as the Eurovision Song Contest and includes Israel, Russia and the former Soviet States. The competition is run under the auspices of the European Chess Union (ECU).
China is a major chess power, with the women's team winning silver medals at the Olympiad in 2010, 2012, and 2014; the men's team winning gold at the 2014 Olympiad, and the average rating for the country's top ten players third in the FIDE rankings as of April 2023.
The World Amateur Chess Championship is a tournament organised by FIDE and Amateur Chess Organisation (ACO).
The first official Lebanese Chess Championship was held in 1953. Lebanese chess players had organized a tournament in 1943 to determine an unofficial champion. The championship has been held regularly, except in the war years of 1969, 1973, and 1975 to 1991. Edgard Chalabi's death caused the 1963 championship to be skipped, and no championship was held in 2006. The women's championship began in 1994.
The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads are the most important international tournaments for teams.
The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE since 1957, where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympiad has been incorporated within Chess Olympiad events, with simultaneous women's and open tournaments.
Anna Yuriyivna Ushenina is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster who was Women's World Chess Champion from November 2012 to September 2013.
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.
Padmini Rout is an Indian chess player. She holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She has won the National Women's Premier Championship five times, consecutively from 2014 to 2017 and again in 2023, and was the Asian women's champion in 2018.
Gunay Vugar qizi Mammadzada is an Azerbaijani chess player who holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) through the International Chess Federation (FIDE). She has been an under-10 girls' World Youth Champion, and both an under-8 and an under-14 girls' European Youth Champion. Mammadzada is a two-time Azerbaijani women's national champion, which she achieved in 2017 and 2019. She has represented Azerbaijan at the Chess Olympiad, the World Team Chess Championship, and the European Team Chess Championship, winning both team and individual bronze medals at the latter in 2019. Mammadzada has a peak FIDE rating of 2483 and has been ranked as high as No. 18 in the world among women.
The Malaysian Chess Championship is organized by the Malaysian Chess Federation. Known as the National Closed Chess Championship prior to 2016, the first edition was held in 1974. A separate Malaysian Women's Chess Championship has also been held annually since 1990. FIDE Master Christi Hon has won the national title a record five times, while Woman International Master Siti Zulaikha Foudzi has won the women's title a record eight times. Curiously, it has occurred twice that a pair of siblings have won the national and the women's titles in the same year: Kamal Ariffin Wahiddudin and Nurul Huda Wahiduddin in 1991, and Zarul Shazwan Zullkafli and Nur Shazwani Zullkafli in 2007.
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.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Umesh K. C. "National Chess Champions of Nepal" . Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- ↑ "Original Tournament Report: 3rd National Woman Chess Championship". FIDE chess ratings. Retrieved 2 February 2017.
- ↑ "19th National Championship & 4th Women's National Championship of Nepal" . Retrieved 2 February 2017.
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