Young Polgár sisters posing for picture outdoors
The Polgár sisters (pictured in 1988) ushered in the modern era of women's chess.

Women represent a small minority of chess players at all ages and levels. Female chess players today generally compete in a mix of open tournaments and women's tournaments, the latter of which are most prominent at or near the top level of women's chess and at youth levels. Modern top-level women's tournaments help provide a means for some participants to be full-time professional chess players. The majority of these tournaments are organized by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) and revolve around the World Championship cycle, which culminates in a match to decide the Women's World Chess Champion. Beyond those events, among the most prominent women's tournaments are women's and girls' national and continental championships.

Women were generally not allowed to join chess clubs until the early 1900s. Once allowed to join, they generally only competed against other women. Around this time, Vera Menchik became the inaugural Women's World Chess Champion and was the first woman to compete in top-level tournaments with the best players in the world in the late 1920s. After her death, the Soviet Union dominated women's chess, winning every Women's Chess Olympiad they played from its inception in 1957 through 1986. Soviet players Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze from Georgia became the first two women to earn the Grandmaster (GM) title, and were the next two women after Menchik to compete in high-level open tournaments.

The Polgar sisters ended Soviet domination of women's chess as Susan Polgar became No. 1 in the world among women in 1984 and all three led Hungary to a gold medal at the 1988 Olympiad. Judit Polgar established herself as the strongest women's chess player of all time, reaching No. 8 in the world overall. The turn of the century saw a substantial increase in the number of women to earn the GM title. Among these new GMs, Hou Yifan has been the only other woman to reach the overall top 100 and regularly compete in high-level open tournaments. Since the 1990s, China has dominated the Women's World Championship with six different champions, including the reigning champion Ju Wenjun.

The low number of women to reach the top level of chess has created a lot of interest as to why women historically have not had more success. There is no evidence that women are innately disadvantaged at chess. It has been demonstrated statistically that the low numbers across all levels can largely account for the lack of women at or near the top. The general paucity of women in chess has contributed to women commonly being the subject of sexism, harassment, and sexual harassment, factors also thought to contribute to women achieving less or leaving chess early. Beyond playing chess, women also take on other roles such as being a coach or an arbiter. Two chess professions with a smaller participation gap are commentators and live streamers.

Chess competitions

With respect to gender, chess tournaments can be classified as either open or women's tournaments.[lower-alpha 1] Women can choose to compete in either open or women's tournaments. In practice, most if not all female players play a mix of both. The fraction of participants who are women can vary considerably depending on the type of tournament. Independently organized tournaments tend to feature higher percentages of female chess players than championship tournaments organized by federations. Many smaller tournaments across a wide range of levels do not have any female participants.

One of the most common types of chess tournaments are Swiss open tournaments, which both men and women can enter as they generally allow a large if not unlimited number of participants. On some occasions, these tournaments are split into multiple sections by rating. Swiss tournaments tend to not have a women-only section, although it is possible that one of the rating sections may be restricted to women. Instead of having a separate women-only section, many professional and semi-professional Swiss tournaments have women's prizes reserved for the highest-finishing women in the open sections.

Another common type of tournament are closed round-robin tournaments, which tend to have around ten players. These tournaments are very popular at highest level of chess, and include events such as the Sinquefield Cup. Although there are no formal restrictions by gender, many such elite tournaments tend to only have male players because the event is invite-only and only high-rated players receive invitations. Judit Polgár and Hou Yifan are generally considered the only players to regularly play in these elite highest-level tournaments this century. Female chess players have corresponding elite women-only round-robin events such as the Cairns Cup. There are only a few elite women-only round-robin classical tournaments.

Championship tournaments

Tournaments can either be independent or some sort of championship tournament organized by FIDE, continental federations, or national federations. These championship tournaments organized by federations often have an open section and a women's section, and they are often held concurrently, such as with the Chess Olympiad and the Women's Chess Olympiad. Because the sections are held together and the top female players have a better chance to medal or win prizes in the women's section, few women participate in the open section. Likewise, nearly all national federations host a national championship and a women's national championship, as well as similar competitions across a wide range of youth levels. Albeit also uncommon, it can be more common for women or girls to participate in the open sections of these events, and more so at youth levels. Some female players have won their country's overall national championship, including grandmasters and international masters such as Judit Polgár, Nino Khurtsidze, Viktorija Čmilytė, Keti Arakhamia-Grant, and Eva Moser.

FIDE began hosting a Women's World Chess Championship in 1927 even before they controlled the overall World Chess Championship. The inaugural edition was won by Vera Menchik.[1] The reigning Women's World Chess Champion is Ju Wenjun, who has won the title four times in a row from 2018 through 2023. The most recent format for the Women's World Championship is a match between the reigning champion and a challenger who earns the right to challenge by winning the Women's Candidates. The Candidates and the rest of the World Championship cycle are analogous to how the overall World Chess Champion is determined.

Chess coaching

There are few elite-level female chess coaches, in part owing to how there have only been a little more than 40 female chess players who have achieved the Grandmaster title. Susan Polgar is one of the few prominent high-level female chess coaches, particularly at the Grandmaster level. Polgar has run chess centers and also became one of the leading college chess coaches in the United States. In 2010, as the head coach for the Texas Tech Knight Raiders chess team, Susan Polgar became the first woman to lead a team to the Final Four.[2] In April 2011 the Texas Tech Knight Raiders won the President's Cup;[3] this made Polgar the first female head coach to lead a team to the national title.[2]

Achievements in chess

Judit Polgár, 2008

Judit Polgár, generally considered the strongest female player of all time,[4] was at one time the eighth highest rated player in the world, and remains the only woman to have ever been rated in the world's top ten.[5][6] Three women, Maia Chiburdanidze,[7] Polgár,[8] and Hou Yifan,[9] have been ranked in the world's top 100 players.[10]

Research in gender differences

Male chess players greatly outnumber female chess players at all age levels and in the vast majority of tournaments, often by a factor of ten or higher. Analysis of rating statistics of German players in an article from 2009 by Merim Bilalić, Kieran Smallbone, Peter McLeod, and Fernand Gobet[11] indicated that although the highest-rated men were stronger than the highest-rated women, the difference (usually more than 200 rating points) was largely accounted for by the relatively smaller pool of women players (only one-sixteenth of rated German players were women). In 2020, psychologist and neuroscientist Wei Ji Ma summarized the state of research on women in chess as "there is currently zero evidence for biological differences in chess ability between the genders" but added "that does not mean that there are certainly no such differences."[12]

Chess players, both men and women, have speculated on the reasons behind the gap in chess achievements by women compared to men. Some women players believe the major reason is due to cultural expectations and bias. Jennifer Shahade, a FIDE Woman Grandmaster and the women's program director at the United States Chess Federation (USCF), said there is a large drop-off of girls at the USCF around the ages of 12 and 13, which she attributes to the lack of a social network for girls that age in chess.[13] Polgár said that society and some parents may weaken the desire of young female chess players to improve,[14] and that women were often held back by lower ambition by choosing to compete in all-women tournaments rather than open tournaments.[15] Jovanka Houska, an International Master and Woman Grandmaster, argued that overconfidence by boys gives an advantage over girls.[16]

In a 2007 study at the University of Padua, male and female players of similar ability were matched up with each other on online games. When the players were unaware of their opponent's sex, female players won slightly under half their games. When female players were told their opponent was male, they played less aggressively, and they won about one in four games. However, when female players were told their opponent was female, even though they were actually male, they were as aggressive as the male players and won about one in two games. The researchers argued that gender stereotypes may have led female players to lower their self-esteem and self-confidence when they know they are playing male players, causing them to play defensively which worsened their performance.[17][15]. Attempts to replicate this result with the analysis of chess databases has produced inconsistent results.[18]

Sexism in chess

Polgár,[14] Shahade[13] and Houska[16] have said that they have encountered sexism, including belittling comments about their abilities, opponents who refused to shake hands, and online trolls questioning if girls and women belong in chess.

Several male players have commented negatively on women's performance in chess. In a 1963 interview, Bobby Fischer was dismissive of female players, calling them "terrible" and said it was because "[women] are not so smart".[19] In 2015, Nigel Short argued that male players performed better because men and women were "hard-wired" for different skills,[20] which was met with controversy.[21] In 2022, Ilya Smirin, while broadcasting live during the ninth round of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2022–23, said that chess was "maybe not for women", and also praised a woman for playing like a man.[22] FIDE apologized through Twitter and called Smirin's comments embarrassing and offensive. The same day FIDE fired Smirin for making "offensive remarks".[23]

Transgender women

In August 2023, FIDE attracted heavy criticism for issuing an order banning transgender women from women's competitions. This was seen by many chess players as having no purpose other than to discriminate against transgender women, as unlike physical sports, there are no concerns about biological advantages. American Woman Grandmaster Jennifer Shahade commented "It's obvious they didn't consult with any transgender players in constructing it... I strongly urge FIDE to reverse course on this and start from scratch with better consultants."[24] French transgender player Yosha Iglesias, who holds the title of FIDE Master, described the new regulations as "unfair, exclusive, and discriminatory", saying they were contrary to the IOC guidelines that FIDE had signed up to.[25]

Culture

The Lewis chessmen in the British Museum

Margret the Adroit may have made the 12th-century[26] Lewis chessmen. In 2010 at a conference at the National Museum of Scotland on the Lewis chessmen, Gudmundur Thorarinsson (a civil engineer and a former member of the Icelandic Parliament) and Einar S. Einarsson (a former president of Visa Iceland and a friend of the chess champion Bobby Fischer)[27][28] argued that Margret the Adroit made them. It is a claim that the American author Nancy Marie Brown supports in her 2015 book, Ivory Vikings, the Mystery of the Most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman Who Made Them.[29]

Caïssa ("Ka-ee-sah") is a fictional (anachronistic) Thracian dryad portrayed as the goddess of chess. She was first mentioned during the Renaissance by Italian poet Hieronymus Vida.

Historically chess has had many variants. In chess today the queen is the name of the most powerful chess piece. Historian Marilyn Yalom has argued that the queen was able to become the most dangerous piece on the board in the late 15th century because of the example of powerful female rulers in that era of European history.[30][31]

History

Early history and romantic era of chess

Painting by Sofonisba Anguissola of her sisters playing chess (1555)

In the Middle Ages, Macalda di Scaletta played chess, and historical evidence suggests that she was probably the first person in Sicily who learned how to play it. Queen Elizabeth I, who lived from 1533 until 1603, played chess very well, according to a placard in the Tower of London.[32][33]

Benjamin Franklin, who lived from 1706 until 1790, according to Thomas Jefferson played chess in Paris with socially important women, including the Duchess of Bourbon Bathilde d'Orléans, who was "a chess player of about his force".[34][35]

Milestones and beginning of tournament participation

In 1884 the first women's chess tournament was held; it was sponsored by the Sussex Chess Association.[36] In 1897 the first women's international chess tournament was held, which Mary Rudge won.[37] In 1927 the first Women's World Chess Championship was held, which Vera Menchik won.[1]

A woman playing chess by radio in 1922

In 1950 Lyudmila Rudenko became the first female International Master.[38][39]

The first Women's Chess Olympiad was held in 1957 and won by the Soviet Union team.[40][41][42][43]

In 1976 Rohini Khadilkar became the first female to compete in the Indian Men's Championship. Her involvement in a male competition caused a furore that necessitated a successful appeal to the High Court and caused the World Chess Federation president, Max Euwe, to rule that women cannot be barred from national and international championships.[44] In 1978 Nona Gaprindashvili became the first female Grandmaster.[45][46]

In 1996 Judit Polgár became the first woman to be ranked in the top ten of all chess players,[47] in 2002 she became the first female chess player to defeat the reigning world number one (Garry Kasparov) in a game,[48][49] and in 2005 she became the first female player to play for a small-scale World Chess Championship, which she did in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005; she had previously participated in large, 100+ player knockout tournaments for the world championship, but this was a small 8-player invitational.

21st century and online chess era

A woman playing chess in 2007

Recently, Hou Yifan has been the leading female chess player, for example winning the Biel GM tournament in 2017.[50]

In February 2017,[51] the Iranian Chess Federation[52] banned Dorsa Derakhshani from playing for the national team or in national tournaments after she played in the 2017 Gibraltar Chess Festival without wearing a hijab.[53][54]

The 2015 Women's World Champion, Mariya Muzychuk, and US Women's Champion Nazí Paikidze elected not to attend the Women's World Chess Championship 2017, out of protest at the tournament's location in Iran, where participants were required to wear a hijab in public.[55] In December 2022, Iranian player Sarasadat Khademalsharieh planned not to return to Iran after not wearing a hijab during the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships, amid protests against the Iranian government.[56][57]

In 2021 FIDE announced the largest-yet sponsorship deal for women's chess, with the breast enlargement company Motiva; this move met with both criticism and support from female chess players.[58] FIDE declared 2022 the "Year of Woman in Chess".[59]

Timeline

Vera Menchik in 1933; she became the first Women's World Chess Champion in 1927.
  • 1950: Lyudmila Rudenko became the first female International Master.[38][39]
  • 1950: Chantal Chaudé de Silans became the first woman to play at a Chess Olympiad.
  • 1950: FIDE introduced the Woman International Master title.[62]
  • 1957: The first Women's Chess Olympiad was held in 1957 and won by the Soviet Union team.[43][40][41][42]
  • 1961: Lisa Lane appeared on the cover of Sports Illustrated in the August 7, 1961 edition, making her the first chess player of any gender to appear on its cover.[63]
  • 1976: Rohini Khadilkar became the first female to compete in the Indian Men's Championship. Her involvement in a male competition caused a furore that necessitated a successful appeal to the High Court and caused the World Chess Federation president, Max Euwe, to rule that women cannot be barred from national and international championships.[44]
  • 1976: FIDE introduced the Woman Grandmaster title.[64]
  • 1978: Nona Gaprindashvili became the first female Grandmaster.[65]
  • 1978: FIDE introduced the Woman FIDE Master title.[66]
  • 1986: FIDE decided to grant 100 bonus Elo rating points to all active female players except Susan Polgár, which knocked her from the top spot in the January 1987 FIDE ratings list. The rationale was that the FIDE ratings of women were not commensurate with the ratings of the men because the women tended to play in women-only tournaments, Polgar being an exception because up to that point she had played mainly against men.[67]
  • 1991: Judit Polgár became the first woman to be the youngest-ever Grandmaster.[68]
  • 1992: Gisela Kahn Gresser became the first woman to be inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame.[69]
  • 1993: Judit Polgár became the first woman to qualify for an Interzonal tournament.[70]
  • 1996: Judit Polgár became the first woman to be ranked in the top ten of all chess players.[47]
  • 1998: Judit Polgár became the first woman to win the U.S. Open Chess Championship. She shared the tournament victory with Boris Gulko as each scored 8–1.[71]
  • 2002: FIDE introduced the Woman Candidate Master title.[72]
  • 2002: Judit Polgár became the first female player to defeat the reigning world number one in a game, beating Garry Kasparov.[48][49]
  • 2003: Susan Polgár became the first woman to win the U.S. Open Blitz Championship.[73]
  • 2003: Susan Polgár became the first woman to be named "Grandmaster of the Year" by the United States Chess Federation.[74]
  • 2005: Judit Polgár became the first female player to play for a small-scale World Chess Championship, which she did in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2005; she had previously participated in large, 100+ player knockout tournaments for the world championship, but this was a small 8-player invitational.
  • 2011: Vera Menchik became the first woman inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.[75][76][77][78]
  • 2013: Alexandra Kosteniuk became the first woman to win the men's Swiss Chess Championship.[79]
  • 2022: FIDE declared 2022 the "Year of Woman in Chess".[59]

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ The term "open" in chess can refer to either a tournament with no restrictions by gender or a Swiss tournament. Many Swiss "open" tournaments are also "open" by gender.

References

  1. 1 2 3 "Vera Francevna Menchik-Stevenson | British chess player". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  2. 1 2 "Raiders Win Final Four: Best College Chess Team In Nation :: Texas Tech Today". Today.ttu.edu. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  3. ↑ Rodriguez, Rocio (7 April 2011). "Knight Raiders win national championship". The Daily Toreador. Retrieved 4 December 2011.
  4. ↑ Sources citing Polgár as by far the strongest female chess player of all time:
    • "Anand wins chess "Battle of the Sexes"". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Associated Press. 18 August 2003. p. 6A. note: The Associated Press story on Aug.17/18, 2003 on the Polgár–Anand match explicitly refers to Polgár with the words "by far the strongest woman chess player ever"
    • "Polgar, Judit". Encyclodedia Britannica Online. Retrieved 22 January 2015. note: explicitly uses "by far": "By far the strongest female player of all time".
    • "Super-GM tournament in Sofia starts". Chessbase.com. 12 May 2005. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
    • "Judit Polgár: 'I can work myself into the top ten again'". ChessBase. 11 November 2007. Retrieved 4 February 2008.
    • McClain, Dylan Loeb (24 December 2006). "Chess; The Secret of Playing Blindfold: Memory May Be the Least of It". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
    • "Women Grandmasters in Chess". MichaelBluejay. Retrieved 13 April 2010.
    • Pein, Malcolm (22 September 2009). "A crown for Kosteniuk". London. Retrieved 18 April 2010. Malcolm Pein, British IM and Executive Editor of CHESS magazine, when speaking of A. Kosteniuk's victory over Hou Yifan for the Women's World Championship, said "Currently Judit Polgár is in another league from any other female player."
    • "Elite Players Of Chess To Compete". The New York Times. 17 May 2005. Retrieved 18 April 2010.
    • Humber, James M.; Almeder, Robert F. (7 August 1998). Human cloning. Humana Press inc. p. 87. ISBN 0-89603-565-4.
    • Weber, Bruce (22 December 1996). "Next Move? Chess enthusiasts puzzle over game's gender imbalance". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. p. 17A.
    • Wolff, Patrick (2002). Complete Idiot's guide to chess. Penguin Group (USA) Inc. p. 277. ISBN 0-02-864182-5.
    • Kavalek, Lubomir (17 January 2005). "Chess". The Washington Post. p. C12. Kavalek, GM in the top 100 players for 26 years, called Polgár, "the all-time best female player"
    • Pandolfini, Bruce (2007). Treasure Chess: Trivia, Quotes, Puzzles, and Lore from the World's Oldest Game. Random House. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-375-72204-2. Pandolfini, chess author and coach, writes "Judit Polgár is simply the strongest female chess player in history."
    • "All Time Rankings:FIDE Top 10 1970–1997". The University of Edinburgh. Archived from the original on 26 November 2009. Retrieved 15 May 2010.
  5. ↑ "Judit Polgar | Top Chess Players". Chess.com. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  6. ↑ Smerdon, David. "What's behind the gender imbalance in top-level chess?". The Conversation. Retrieved 15 June 2021.
  7. ↑ "FIDE rating history :: Chiburdanidze, Maia".
  8. ↑ "FIDE rating history :: Polgar, Judit".
  9. ↑ "FIDE Ratings". ratings.fide.com.
  10. ↑ Colodro, Carlos Alberto (14 July 2020). "Hou Yifan youngest-ever full professor at Shenzhen University". chessbase.com. chessbase. Retrieved 29 December 2020.
  11. ↑ Bilalić, Merim; Smallbone, Kieran; McLeod, Peter; Gobet, Fernand (22 March 2009). "Why are (the best) women so good at chess? Participation rates and gender differences in intellectual domains". Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. 276 (1659): 1161–1165. doi:10.1098/rspb.2008.1576. PMC 2679077. PMID 19129102.
  12. ↑ Ma, Wei Ji (11 December 2020). "The Real Reasons All the Top Chess Players Are Men". Slate Magazine.
  13. 1 2 Miller, Julie (5 November 2020). "The Queen's Gambit: A Real-Life Chess Champion on Netflix's Addictive Hit". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  14. 1 2 McClain, Dylan (10 November 2020). "How 'The Queen's Gambit' Started a New Debate About Sexism in Chess". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  15. 1 2 Leland, John (8 July 2016). "4 Young Chess Masters Tackle a Persistent Puzzle: The Gender Gap". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  16. 1 2 Davies, Caroline (14 November 2020). "Igniting girls' interest in chess may be great legacy of The Queen's Gambit". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  17. ↑ Maass, Anne; D'Ettole, Claudio; Cadinu, Mara (14 May 2007). "Checkmate? The role of gender stereotypes in the ultimate intellectual sport". European Journal of Social Psychology. 38 (2): 231–245. doi:10.1002/ejsp.440. S2CID 144308852.
  18. ↑ Brancaccio, Andrea; Gobet, Fernand (2023). "Scientific Explanations of the Performance Gender Gap in Chess and Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)". Journal of Expertise. 6 (1): 81–107.
  19. ↑ McClain, Dylan (3 November 2020). "I'm a Chess Expert. Here's What 'The Queen's Gambit' Gets Right". The New York Times. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  20. ↑ Short, Nigel (22 April 2015). "Vive La Différence". Chessbase. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  21. ↑ Ellis-Petersen, Hannah (20 April 2015). "Nigel Short says men 'hardwired' to be better chess players than women". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 June 2021.
  22. ↑ "Ilya Smirin: Chess commentator sacked for sexist comments during match". BBC News. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  23. ↑ "Chess sexist controversy: GM Illya Smirin fired from commentary job for saying, 'Chess is not for women'". The Indian Express. 28 September 2022. Retrieved 28 September 2022.
  24. ↑ Transgender women banned from women's chess events, BBC, 18 August 2023
  25. ↑ 'Unfair, exclusive, and discriminatory', World Chess body faces backlash over new regulations on transgender players, Hindustan Times, August 17, 2023
  26. ↑ "The enigma of the Lewis chessmen". Chess News. 11 September 2010.
  27. ↑ McClain, Dylan Loeb (8 September 2010). "Reopening History of Storied Ivory Chessmen". The New York Times. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  28. ↑ "Bones of Contention". The Economist. 29 August 2015. Retrieved 5 March 2016.
  29. ↑ Brown, Nancy Marie (2015). Ivory Vikings: the Mystery of the most Famous Chessmen in the World and the Woman who Made Them. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 9781137279378.
  30. ↑ Yalom, Marilyn (2015). Birth of the chess queen : a history (First Perennial ed.). New York, NY. ISBN 978-0060090654.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
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  32. ↑ "Elizabeth I | Biography, Facts, Mother, & Death". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  33. ↑ Caffrey, Matthew (January 2019). "On Wargaming". The Newport Papers.
  34. ↑ "Benjamin Franklin | Biography, Inventions, Wife, Quotes, & Facts". Encyclopedia Britannica.
  35. ↑ "Chess « Thomas Jefferson's Monticello". Monticello.org. Retrieved 21 October 2013.
  36. 1 2 "White Knight Review Chess Magazine Sep/Oct 2011, page 20". Issuu.
  37. 1 2 Richards, John. Mary Rudge: Bristol's World Chess Champion. via blueyonder.co.uk. Accessed 13 March 2009.
  38. 1 2 Tenbarge, Kat. "Lyudmila Rudenko: 5 Fascinating Facts About the International Chess Master". Inverse.
  39. 1 2 "Five things you didn't know about the inspirational Soviet chess supremo". The Independent. 27 July 2018.
  40. 1 2 "Emmen Olympiad 1957". www.icu.ie.
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  45. ↑ "Georgian chess legend Nona Gaprindashvili wins world championship in Bucharest". Agenda.ge.
  46. ↑ "Mary McNamara: So many lives would be different if we'd had 'The Queen's Gambit' 50 years ago. Including mine". Tribune Content Agency.
  47. 1 2 The January 1996 FIDE ratings list was a landmark as Polgár's 2675 rating made her the No. 10 ranked player in the world, the only woman ever to enter the world's Top Ten. Berry, Jonathan (6 January 1996). "Kramnick, 20 Tops the rating list". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. A12.
  48. 1 2 "Sweet revenge for Kasparov's opponent". The Guardian. 11 September 2002. Retrieved 8 June 2017.
  49. 1 2 For the game score, see chessgames
  50. ↑ Sam Copeland (3 August 2017), "Hou Yifan Scores Historic Victory in Biel", chess.com, retrieved 12 August 2019
  51. ↑ Chess prodigy moves west to play hijab-free, The Australian, October 10, 2017
  52. ↑ "فدراسیون شطرنج جمهوری اسلامی ایران". www.ircf.ir.
  53. ↑ Iran bans teenage chessplayers for "harming national interests", ChessBase, 21 February 2017
  54. ↑ Klein, Mike (28 February 2017). "Ousted Iranian Player: 'My Wardrobe Should Not Be Anyone's Business!'". Chess.com. Retrieved 26 March 2020.
  55. ↑ Fischer, Johannes (12 January 2017). "Women's World Championship 2017: Who plays, who doesn't?". Chess News. ChessBase.
  56. ↑ McClain, Dylan Loeb (30 December 2022). "After Competing Without a Hijab, a Top Iranian Chess Player Won't Return Home". The New York Times. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  57. ↑ "Iranian chess player 'moving to Spain' after competing without headscarf". The Guardian. 29 December 2022. Retrieved 31 December 2022.
  58. ↑ "Fide sparks anger with 'gross' breast enlargement sponsor for women's chess". The Guardian. 1 October 2021.
  59. 1 2 "'It is not biology': Women's chess hindered by low numbers and sexism | Sean Ingle". The Guardian. 29 November 2021.
  60. ↑ "Ajedrez". Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 18 October 2007.
  61. ↑ "Cuba -La Jiribilla".
  62. ↑ "Woman International Master (WIM) - Chess Terms - Chess.com". www.chess.com.
  63. ↑ "Valentina's Day". First Move Chess. 11 February 2019.
  64. ↑ Hooper, David; Whyld, Kenneth (1992). The Oxford Companion to Chess (2nd ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 450. ISBN 0-19-280049-3.
  65. ↑ licence, Fatima Hudoon, Hans Peters/Anefo/Wikimedia Commons under a CC. "The real-life Queen's Gambit: how Georgia's Nona Gaprindashvili conquered the chess world". The Calvert Journal.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  66. ↑ Gino Di Felice (16 January 2018). Chess International Titleholders, 1950-2016. McFarland. pp. 1–. ISBN 978-1-4766-3361-9.
  67. ↑ Schultz, Donald (March 1987), "Letter from Dubai", Chess Life, p. 53
  68. ↑ "Hungarian teen-ager achieves rank of chess grandmaster". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. The New York Times Service. 5 February 1992. p. A9.
  69. ↑ "Gisela K. Gresser". World Chess Hall of Fame. 23 March 2017.
  70. ↑ Berry, Jonathan (15 May 1993). "Polgar moves up to Interzonal". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. p. E9.
  71. ↑ Byrne, Robert (25 August 1998). "CHESS; Polgar Is First Woman to Win the Open". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 April 2010.
  72. ↑ "Woman Candidate Master (WCM) - Chess Terms - Chess.com". www.chess.com.
  73. ↑ Mueller, Angela (12 September 2014). "Susan Polgar - Director, Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence at Webster University; Head coach, Webster University chess team". St. Louis Business Journal. Retrieved 7 August 2022.
  74. ↑ "Susan Polgar – Grandmaster of the Year". Chess News. 5 June 2003.
  75. ↑ Tanner, Robert (2016). Vera Menchik: A Biography of the First Women's World Chess Champion, with 350 Games. Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland. p. 24. ISBN 978-0786496020.
  76. ↑ "Vera Menchik". World Chess Hall of Fame. 23 March 2017. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  77. ↑ "Vera Menchik Becomes First Woman to Join World Chess Hall of Fame". US Chess Federation. 20 September 2011. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  78. ↑ "World Chess Hall of Fame". World Chess Hall of Fame. Retrieved 21 July 2022.
  79. ↑ "Kosteniuk leads women's blitz". Qatar-Tribune. 30 December 2016.

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