Maia Chiburdanidze is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until 2010, when this record was broken by Hou Yifan. Chiburdanidze is the second woman to be awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE, which took place in 1984. She has played on nine gold-medal-winning teams in the Women's Chess Olympiad.
The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE.
Alla Shulimovna Kushnir was a Soviet-born Israeli chess player. She was awarded the FIDE titles of Woman International Master (WIM) in 1962 and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1976. In 2017, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.
Irina Solomonovna Levitina is a former Soviet and current American chess and bridge player. In chess, she has been a World Championship Candidate in 1984 and gained the title Woman Grandmaster. In contract bridge she has won five world championship events, four women and two mixed, including play on two world-champion USA women teams.
The 1962 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Nona Gaprindashvili, who beat the reigning champion Elisabeth Bykova in the title match.
The 1965 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Nona Gaprindashvili, who successfully defended her title against challenger Alla Kushnir in what was to be the first of three consecutive title matches between the two strongest female players of their time.
The 1969 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Nona Gaprindashvili, who successfully defended her title against challenger Alla Kushnir. This was the second of three consecutive title matches between the two strongest female players of their time.
The 1975 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Nona Gaprindashvili, who successfully defended her title against challenger Nana Alexandria. This was Gaprindashvili's fourth title defense - and the last successful one.
The 1978 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who defeated the incumbent champion Nona Gaprindashvili At only 17 years of age, Chiburdanidze became the sixth and youngest Women's World Champion.
The 1981 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who successfully defended her title against challenger Nana Alexandria after a closely fought match, which ended in an 8-8 tie.
The 1984 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who successfully defended her title against challenger Irina Levitina.
The 1986 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who successfully defended her title against challenger Elena Akhmilovskaya.
The 1988 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who successfully defended her title against challenger Nana Ioseliani.
The 1991 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Xie Jun, who defeated the incumbent champion Maia Chiburdanidze in the title match.
The 1993 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Xie Jun, who successfully defended her title against challenger Nana Ioseliani in the title match.
The 1999 Women's World Chess Championship was won by former champion Xie Jun, who regained her title after defeating Alisa Galliamova. Previous to the match, reigning champion Susan Polgar had been stripped of her title after much controversy.
While the World Chess Championship title, contested officially since 1886 and unofficially long before that, is in theory open to all players, it was for many years contested solely by men. In 1927, FIDE therefore established a Women's World Chess Championship exclusively for female players. Like the "open" title, the format for the women's championship has undergone several changes since then, the most important of which are described here.
Gertrude Baumstark, was a Romanian and German chess player who holds the title of Woman International Master. She is a two-time winner of the Romanian Women's Chess Championship.
Katarina Blagojević, also known as Katarina Blagojević-Jovanović was a Serbian chess player who held the title of Woman Grandmaster. She shared 4th–5th place in the Women's World Chess Championship Candidates Tournament in 1964. She was a three-time winner of the Yugoslav Women's Chess Championship and won a team silver medal and bronze individual medal at the Women's Chess Olympiads in 1963 and 1966, respectively.
Natalia Viktorovna Konopleva was a Soviet and Russian chess player who held the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (1976).
Nana Alexandria (Soviet Union)
Milunka Lazarević (Yugoslavia)
Mária Ivánka (Hungary)
Krystyna Hołuj-Radzikowska (Poland)
Elisabeta Polihroniade (Romania)
Corry Vreeken (Netherlands)
Mona May Karff (USA)
Ruth Volgl Cardoso (Brazil)
