One of the greatest female chess players ever, Susan Polgar was a child prodigy and was able to compete against male world champions. She paved the way for a new generation of female chess players.
She was the first female Grandmaster and defended her Women’s Chess World Championship title for 14 years against Nona Gaprindashvili. She is also the youngest player to break the 2600+ FIDE rating barrier.
1. Judit Polgar
Judit Polgar’s parents decided when she was young that she would be a chess champion. And they were right, the Hungarian became an International Master much younger than both Bobby Fischer and Garry Kasparov did (at 12 years old).
At age 15, she became a Grandmaster, breaking down the gender barrier. She won the World Blitz and Rapid Chess Championships and was ranked the top woman player in the FIDE rating list for 23 years.
She is a fierce competitor and has defeated all-time greats like Anatoly Karpov, Veselin Topalov, and Ruslan Ponomariov. She’s also a beautiful woman with sharp features and serious facial expression.
2. Hou Yifan
Hou Yifan is a woman Grandmaster from China who started playing chess when she was just three years old. She became a woman FIDE master in January 2004 and a woman international grandmaster in 2007.
In 2012, she won the Gibraltar Masters, beating four 2700+ players to win by first place. That performance pushed her official rating above Judit Polgar, ending the Hungarian’s 26-year reign as women’s world number one.
In 2017, she won the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival and beat Fabiano Caruana at the Grenke Classic. Hou also won the Biel Chess Festival with a 2809-rated performance. She participated in the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games which had 3 events of Rapid, Blitz, and Blindfold chess. She finished joined 5-7th on tiebreaks in the rapid, but won the blitz and blindfold events.
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3. Katerina Nemcova
Chess is one of the oldest board games and it has cultivated a sizable dedicated following for centuries. It’s also a sport with a strong presence of female players who have climbed to the top of their field.
GM Katerina Nemcova is a Prague-born player who currently studies at the University of Texas-Brownsville. She started playing chess at age four and won multiple Czech Youth Championships across several age categories.
Like the Polgar sisters, she’s proof that any woman with the right training and coaching can become a world-class champion. Her performance at the 2021 US Women’s Chess Championship proves it.
4. Alexandra Kosteniuk
The 14th Women’s World Chess Champion, Russian chess grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk was born April 23, 1984. Taught by her father, she started playing the game at age five. She is also a fashion model, author of chess books, and gives chess lessons online.
She represented Russia at chess tournaments until the 2014 conflict in Ukraine when she announced that she would compete for Switzerland instead. However, she has to complete a two-year waiting period before switching her nationality.
She currently lives in Miami Florida with her husband Diego Garces of Switzerland and their daughter Francesca Maria.
5. Antoaneta Stefanova
Chess is a male-dominated sport, but these female players have proven that gender is no barrier to success. They have broken the mold and inspired women around the world to pursue their passion for chess.
She started playing chess at the age of four and has won many tournaments since then. She is also a two-time winner of the female Russian championship.
She was awarded the chess grandmaster title at the age of 23. She is known for her dedication and has a reputation of being one of the most serious female players in history. She is also a hot chess player who attracts male attention with her attractive looks and gorgeous blonde hair.
6. Alisa Maric
The 42 year old started playing chess at a very young age. She has won many international tournaments and was the first female to break the 2600 FIDE rating barrier. She is also known for ending a 41-year Soviet reign on the Women’s World Chess Championship.
She has won a number of European and National Chess Championships and three times won the European Chess Club Cup with her team Agrouniverzal from Belgrade. She has held IM and WGM titles and currently anchors a chess show on the Belgrade TV Politika. She is a strong advocate of female equality in a game where men dominate.
7. Susan Polgar
The oldest of the three Polgar sisters, Susan first became a women’s grandmaster in 1984. She is a legendary figure in the game, having broken through the “gender barrier” at an early age and continuing to push the boundaries of female chess for 23 years.
Polgar is currently the chief of the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence at Webster University. She has won many awards throughout her career and is a frequent advocate for gender equality in a world where men dominate the sport.
She helped train the women’s team at the 2004 Chess Olympiad and has won a total of eleven medals, including four golds.
8. Vera Menchik
Vera Menchik is largely responsible for dispelling the notion that chess is a male sport. During her time as the first Women’s World Champion, she won 78 out of 83 games, with only one loss and four draws, making her a truly dominant force in the competition.
She also took part in men’s tournaments throughout the 1920s and 1930s, defeating many famous players such as Akiba Rubinstein and Jose Raul Capablanca. Even her teacher, GM Geza Maroczy, was no match for the subtle strategy and fine positional play of Menchik. She is the only woman to have won the women’s world championship twice.
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