 | 1. Vera Menchik
Born in Moscow of Czechoslavakian-British extraction, Vera Menchik was easily the strongest female player of her time, having at one time or other beaten most of the strongest players in the world (the defeated became members of the "Vera Menchik Club"). In 1927 she won the first Women's World Championship tournament with a score of 10.5 out of 11. She defended her title with ease in Hamburg 1930, Prague 1931, Folkestone 1933, Warsaw 1935, Stockholm 1937 and Buenos Aires 1939. |
 | 2. Ludmila Rudenko
Ludmila Rudenko from Byelorussian started her career by winning the women's champion of Moscow in 1928. She went on to win the Women's World Championship tournament in 1949, with a score of 11.5 out of 15. She held the title until 1953. |
 | 3. Elizaveta Bykova
Elizaveta Bykova was coincidentally born in a town called Bogolyubovo in Russia. In 1938 she became women's champion of Moscow, which she subsequently won a number of times. She was first the USSR Championships of 1947, 1948 and 1950. In 1953 she wrested the women's world championship title from Rudenko in a very hard-fought match. |
 | 4. Olga Rubtsova
At 17 Olga won the first USSR Women's Championship. That was in In 1927. After that she won a great number of tournaments, includin the USSR Women's Championships of 1931, 1937 and 1949 and the Moscow Championships of 1953 and 1954. In 1956 she defeated Elizaveta Bykova to become the fourth women's world champion. |
 | 5. Nona Gaprindashvili
She was born in Tbilisi, Georgia, and was the greatest female player of her generation. She won the world championship title in 1962 and defended it three times. Gaprindashvili played in men's tournaments, winning amongst others Hastings 1963/64 and and tied for first at Lone Price 1977. In 1978 she came second and earned a full male GM title. |
 | 6.Maya Chiburdanidze
The Georgian was one of the first women chess prodigies, becoming the youngest WIM in the history of the game (in 1974 at the age of 13). Her best results were first at Brasov 1974, =1st at Tbilisi 1975 and most impressive of all, second in the 1976 Tbilisi Women's Interzonal and thus qualifying for the 1977 Candidates, wherein, she defeated Alla Kushnir in the final. In 1978, she became Women World Champion by winning a match against Nona Gaprindashvili by 8.5-6.5. |
 | 7. Xie Jun
The Chinese player won the World Women's Champion title a total of three times, in 1993, 1999 and 2000. Xie Jun was personally responsible for a dramatic increase in popularity in China. |
 | 8. Zsuzsa (Susan) Polgar
The oldest of the famous Polgar sisters initially refused to play in women's tournaments, becoming a male grandmaster in 1991 at the age of 23. In 1993 she decided to play for the women's world championship, but did not win the title after a 12-12 draw against Nana Ioseliani. In 1996 she became world champion after beating Xie Jun, and lost the title in 1999 when she refused to play under FIDE's new knockout rules. Susan has also won the Women’s World Chess Champion titles in rapid and blitz chess (both in 1992). |
 | 9. Zhu Chen
The Chinese player Zhu Chen became Women's World Champion in the first FIDE knock-out event in Moscow, beating Russian Alexandra Kosteniuk in the process. In the recent world championship in Elista Zhu failed to participate due to pregnancy and attached scheduling problems. |
 | 10. Antoaneta Stefanova
The latest women's world champion is the top Bulgarian female player who won the title in the FIDE knock-out championship last week (June 5th 2004) in Elista, Kalmykia, defeating Russian WGM Ekaterina Kovalevskaya in the final. |
 | 11. Xu Yuhua
Chinese WGM Xu Yuhua took the title at the Women's World Chess Championship in March 2006 by defeating her opponent, IM Alisa Galliamova of Russia in the finals. |
 | 12. Alexandra Kosteniuk
Russian grandmaster Alexandra Kosteniuk beat chinese prodigy Hou Yifan 2.5-1.5 in the final of Women's World Chess Championship 2008 which took place from August 28, 2008 to September 18 in Nalchik in Russia.
Kosteniuk's mottos have been "chess is cool" and "beauty and intelligence can go together". With these as a backdrop, Kosteniuk has been promoting chess in the capacity of a fashion model and ambassador of chess in order to spark interest in the game around the world. |
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