top of page
Writer's pictureAmith A

Who are the top female chess players to achieve a very high ranking in chess?

Updated: Oct 9, 2022



Hou Yifan


  • Born:1994

  • FIDE Rating: 2658 (December 2021)

  • Women's World Champion: 2010–2012; 2013-2015,2016-2017

  • Peak rating: 2686 (March 2015)

  • Peak ranking: #55 (May 2015)







Img source: By Andreas Kontokanis from Piraeus, Greece - Hou Yifan, CC BY-SA 2.0


Hou Yifan's father, a magistrate by profession was the person who instilled the love for chess game in his daughter and encouraged her to play chess when he brought her a chess set. He hired her first chess coach who was IM Tong Yuan Ming who found that Hou Yifan had an unusual talent in the game of chess. Hou Yifan also has stated that she took up chess as she was fascinated by the chess pieces.


Yifan earned her FIDE Master title in the year 2004. At the age of 12 years she had entered the top 50 women list and the next year she had earned her Grandmaster title and had become the National chess champion


One of the greatest achievements of Hou Yifan was that she became the youngest woman to earn the title of World Chess Champion in the year 2011. In the year 2012, Hou Yifan became the first woman player to defeat the strongest woman player of all time. Hou Yifan achieved her highest ranking in the year 2015. Hou challenged the defending champion Maria Muzychuk, and without losing a single game regained back her title of Woman world chess champion.



 


Vera Menchik















Img Source:Unknown (Studio Herbert Vandyk), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Vera Menchik was born in Moscow to a Czechoslovakian father and British mother. Vera Menchik represented England during her chess career which started at the age of 9 years. Menchik being quite shy in her approach turned to chess which she found to be benefitting someone who does not speak a language. Hungarian Grandmaster Géza Maróczy guided Menchik towards her goal to become the best woman player which happened by the year 1925.


Menchik won the first Women's world chess championship with 10 wins and one draw and defended the title for 6 times consecutively. Menchik’s career came to a tragic end at the age of 38 when she passed away in their South London home during a June 1944 V-1 rocket bombing raid. Menchik became the first woman to be inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in the Year 2011.



 

Lyudmila Vladirovna Rudenko


  • Born:1904

  • Death:1986

  • Women's World Champion: 1950-1953

















Img Source: Unknown author Unknown author, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons


Lyudmila Rudenko was a Soviet chess player who had begun playing chess as a child and became the second World Women's chess Champion. She also had achieved the title of International Master in the year 1950 and a Woman Grandmaster title in the year 1976. She was the second woman's chess champion from the year 1950 to 1953 and was also the USSR's woman champion in the year 1952.


 

Elizaveta Ivanovna Bykova


  • Born:1913

  • Death:1989

  • Women's World Champion:1953-1956,1958-1962



















Img Source: GFHund, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons


Elizaveta Bykova was a Russian born in Bogolyubovo and started to gain interest in chess when she was 12 years old and then started to play chess with her brother. Among her achievements were the winning of Soviet Women's Chess Championships in the year 1946,1947 and 1950,gaining of WIM(Woman International Master) title in the year 1950,IM(International Master) title in the year 1953 and WGM(Woman Grandmaster) title in the year 1976. She also was the Women's World Chess Champion from the year 1953 to 1956 and from 1958 to 1962.Bykova also promoted the game of chess through the lectures and she was also a renowned chess author and columnist at that time.

 

Nona Gaprindashvili







Img Source: Hans Peters / Anefo, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons


Gaprindashvili was trained at home at the age of 12 years in Georgia by Vakhtang Karseladze and later on moved to the capital, Tbilisi where she could be trained by experienced coaches. In 1961, Gaprindashvili’s sharp attacks and keen

insight into the game of chess kept her at the top of women’s chess as she defeated Woman International Master Elizaveta Bykova of Russia. She then successfully defended her title consecutively for three times. Gaprindashvili was also a five-time winner of the Women’s Soviet Championship in 1964, 1973,1981, 1983, and 1985.Her presence always attracted coaches, and good coaching was very much vital to the player who is on the line of development into a good chess player.


 


Maia Chiburdanidze