ChessMessWomen's world chess champions: the full list, 1927 to today
Every women's world chess champion from Vera Menchik in 1927 to Ju Wenjun, how the title has been decided, and the next challenger, India's Vaishali Rameshbabu.
As of November 2026, the women's world chess champion is Ju Wenjun of China. She first won the title in 2018 and has now won it five times. Her next challenger is Vaishali Rameshbabu of India, who won the 2026 Women's Candidates tournament. Since Vera Menchik became the first champion in 1927, 17 women have held the title.
All the women's world champions
| # | Champion | Country | Years as champion | How she won the title |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Vera Menchik | Born in Russia; played for Czechoslovakia, then England | 1927–1944 | Won the first championship tournament, London 1927 |
| 2 | Lyudmila Rudenko | Soviet Union | 1950–1953 | Won a championship tournament in Moscow (1949–50) |
| 3 | Elisaveta Bykova | Soviet Union | 1953–1956, 1958–1962 | Beat Rudenko in a match (1953); won the title back from Rubtsova (1958) |
| 4 | Olga Rubtsova | Soviet Union | 1956–1958 | Won a three-player match tournament (1956) |
| 5 | Nona Gaprindashvili | Soviet Union (Georgia) | 1962–1978 | Beat Bykova with 7 wins and no losses (1962) |
| 6 | Maia Chiburdanidze | Soviet Union (Georgia) | 1978–1991 | Beat Gaprindashvili (1978) |
| 7 | Xie Jun | China | 1991–1996, 1999–2001 | Beat Chiburdanidze in Manila (1991); won the title back against Alisa Galliamova (1999) |
| 8 | Susan Polgar | Hungary | 1996–1999 | Beat Xie Jun in Jaén, Spain (1996) |
| 9 | Zhu Chen | China | 2001–2004 | Won a knockout event in Moscow (2001) |
| 10 | Antoaneta Stefanova | Bulgaria | 2004–2006 | Won a knockout event in Elista (2004) |
| 11 | Xu Yuhua | China | 2006–2008 | Won a knockout event in Yekaterinburg (2006) |
| 12 | Alexandra Kosteniuk | Russia | 2008–2010 | Won a knockout event in Nalchik (2008) |
| 13 | Hou Yifan | China | 2010–2012, 2013–2015, 2016–2017 | Won a knockout event in Hatay, Turkey, aged 16 (2010); won the title back in matches in 2013 and 2016 |
| 14 | Anna Ushenina | Ukraine | 2012–2013 | Won a knockout event in Khanty-Mansiysk (2012) |
| 15 | Mariya Muzychuk | Ukraine | 2015–2016 | Won a knockout event in Sochi (2015) |
| 16 | Tan Zhongyi | China | 2017–2018 | Won a knockout event in Tehran (2017) |
| 17 | Ju Wenjun | China | 2018– | Beat Tan Zhongyi in a match in Shanghai and Chongqing (2018) |
How the title has been decided
The way FIDE chooses the women's champion has changed several times. There have been four main systems.
Tournaments (1927–1950)
The first women's championship was a tournament held alongside the first Chess Olympiad, in London in 1927. Vera Menchik won it with 10½ points out of 11. She then won every championship tournament she played, seven in all between 1927 and 1939, and also beat Sonja Graf in a title match in 1937. Menchik was still champion when she was killed in 1944, when a German V-1 flying bomb destroyed her home in London. After the war, FIDE held a new championship tournament in Moscow in 1949–50, and Lyudmila Rudenko won it.
Matches (1953–1999)
Next, a Candidates tournament chose a challenger, who then played the champion in a match. (In 1956 the title was decided by a contest between three players.) Nona Gaprindashvili beat Elisaveta Bykova without losing a game in 1962 and stayed champion for 16 years, and her fellow Georgian Maia Chiburdanidze then held the title for 13 years. In 1999 FIDE took the title away from Susan Polgar after refusing to postpone her title defence; she had recently had a baby. Xie Jun then won the title back in a match against Alisa Galliamova.
Knockouts (2000s to 2017)
From 2000, FIDE decided the title in large knockout events. Players met in short mini-matches, and ties were broken with fast games. This produced many different champions and some big surprises: Anna Ushenina was only the 30th seed when she won in 2012. Between 2010 and 2017 FIDE mixed knockouts with matches. Hou Yifan won the 2010 knockout at 16, beat India's Koneru Humpy in a match in Tirana in 2011 (the picture at the top of this page), and won the title back in matches against Ushenina in 2013 and Mariya Muzychuk in 2016.
Matches again (since 2018)
FIDE then went back to title matches, with a Candidates event to choose each challenger. FIDE's president Arkady Dvorkovich said the yearly system had produced too many different champions. Ju Wenjun beat Tan Zhongyi in a match in May 2018, won one last knockout event in November 2018, and has since kept her title in matches against Aleksandra Goryachkina (2020, after a tiebreak), Lei Tingjie (2023) and Tan Zhongyi again (2025).
The situation in November 2026
- The champion. Ju Wenjun won her fifth title in April 2025, beating Tan Zhongyi in a match played in Shanghai and Chongqing; a draw in game 9 was enough to clinch it. FIDE called five titles a new record among Chinese players.
- The challenger. Vaishali Rameshbabu of India won the 2026 Women's Candidates tournament in Cyprus, which ended on 15 April 2026. She scored 8½ out of 14 and finished alone in first place, so no playoff was needed.
- The match. The title match will be 12 games long, and the first player to reach 6½ points wins. If it ends 6–6, tiebreak games decide. When this page was checked in November 2026, FIDE had not yet announced the dates or the host city.
Women at the top of open chess
The World Chess Championship itself is open to everyone. The women's title is an extra title, not the only one women can win, and several women have competed at the very top of open chess (see world chess champions).
- Vera Menchik often played in men's tournaments. Masters who lost to her were jokingly called members of the "Vera Menchik Club", and the future world champion Max Euwe lost to her twice.
- Nona Gaprindashvili became the first woman to be awarded the grandmaster title, in 1978.
- Judit Polgar never played for the women's title at all. She became a grandmaster in 1991 at 15, breaking Bobby Fischer's record, was the world's top-rated woman from 1989 until 2015, and reached number 8 in the overall world rankings. In 2005 she became the first woman to play in the final stage of a World Championship, the eight-player FIDE event in San Luis, Argentina.
Sources
- Women's World Chess Championship, Wikipedia: every champion, match and format
- Crowning a champion: Ju Wenjun clinches her fifth title, FIDE, 16 April 2025
- Vaishali conquers Women's Candidates to set up world title showdown against Ju Wenjun, FIDE, 15 April 2026
- FIDE Women's World Championship cycle 2025–2026, FIDE: match format, dates and host city still to be announced
- Vera Menchik, Wikipedia
- Nona Gaprindashvili, FIDE Chess Museum
- Judit Polgar, Wikipedia
Checked in November 2026.
Questions and answers
- Who is the current women's world chess champion?
- As of November 2026 it is Ju Wenjun of China. She first became champion in 2018 and won her fifth title in April 2025 by beating Tan Zhongyi.
- Who was the first women's world chess champion?
- Vera Menchik, who won the first championship tournament in London in 1927 and held the title until her death in 1944.
- Who will challenge Ju Wenjun for the women's title?
- Vaishali Rameshbabu of India, who won the 2026 Women's Candidates tournament in Cyprus. The 12-game match had no announced dates or host city as of November 2026.
- Can women play for the overall world chess title?
- Yes. The World Chess Championship is open to everyone. Judit Polgar played in the final stage of the 2005 FIDE World Championship, but no woman has yet played a world title match.
- Has an Indian woman won the women's world chess title?
- Not yet, as of November 2026. Koneru Humpy played a title match against Hou Yifan in 2011 and lost, and Vaishali Rameshbabu is the next challenger.
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