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As the World Blitz tournament came to a close, FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich announced on Twitter the time and place for the upcoming Women's Candidates Tournament:
He also noted the field of qualified participants, who will presumably take part participate:
Hou Yifan, Anna Muzychuk, Mariya Muzychuk, Katerina Lagno, Alexandra Kosteniuk, Tan Zhongyi, Nana Dzagnidze and Valentina Gunina, with the first reserve player, Aleksandra Goryachkina.
I am happy to announce that the Women Candidates tournament will take place in Kazan, Russia staring on the 29th of May! See you soon!
— Arkady Dvorkovich (@advorkovich) December 30, 2018
The Women's World Championships have been held in the recent past under a rather confusing system: alternating annually between a match and a knockout tournament. Among those dissatisfied with the format was Hou Yifan, who leads the world ranking by a wide margin. This was no doubt a factor in her decision to withdraw from previous World Championship cycle and focus on her studies. However, the newly elected FIDE President signalled early on that reform of the Women's World Championship was a priority and FIDE announced in November that the Women's World Championship would more closely follow the overall World Championship format, including the addition of a Candidates Tournament. The winner of the tournament, now planned for late May, will play a match against World Champion Ju Wenjun, although many details of the new tournament are yet to come.
As an aside, FIDE also recently announced appointments to a variety of FIDE Commissions. For the Commission for Women's Chess (WOM), the composition is as follows:
Chairman: Eva Repkova (SVK)
Secretary: Ilaha Kadimova (AZE)
Councillors:
Ivan Mandekic (CRO)
Shadi Paridar (IRI)
Mezioud Amina (ALG)
Mei Fang Dina Cheng (TPE)
Members:
Sarai Sanchez Castillo (VEN)
Susan Namangale (MAW)
Carol Pesqueira (ARU)
Alexandra Kosteniuk (RUS)
Abigail Tian Hongwei (CHN)
Damaris Abarca (CHI)
Christelle Jager-Hafstad (ENG)
In contrast to the open World Championship, which was governed privately until the death of Alexander Alekhine in 1946, the Women's World Championship was organised from the outset by the World Chess Federation — FIDE. In 1927, on the sidelines of the 1st Chess Olympiad in London, there was a women's chess tournament with twelve participants, won by Vera Menchik. In the eleven games, she gave up only a single draw. The tournament became the first Women's World Championship.
Menchik was the first and remained the only World Champion before the Second World War. After winning the title, she defended it seven times, six times in a World Championship tournament and once in a match — against Sonja Graf. The extent of Menchik's superiority is evident from the fact that, throughout all the tournaments, she lost only a single game — against Walli Henschel in Hamburg, 1930. In addition, Menchik suffered two losses in her match against Sonja Graf, but also won nine games in a dominating performance.
In 1944, Vera Menchik was killed along with her sister Olga (who also played well) and her mother in the World War II aerial bombardment of London.
After the War, the Women's World Champion was determined by a tournament. Ljudmilla Rudenko won and became the second woman to hold the title. Subsequent title cycles were run by FIDE analogous to the open World Championship, with candidates tournaments and matches.
Photo: worldchesschampionship.blogspot.com
By the year 2000, there were five more world champions: Elizaveta Bykova, Olga Rubtsova, Nona Gaprindashvili, Maia Chiburdanidze and Xie Jun, who won the title in 1991, lost it in 1996 to Susan Polgar and then regained it in a match against Alisa Galliamova in 1999 after Polgar forfeited. Afterwards, FIDE changed to a knockout format matching the FIDE World Championship. The following year, 2000, was the first of these, and Xie Jun defended her title, rising through a 64-player field in New Delhi, India.
While the knockout World Championship format was shelved after Rustam Kasimdzhanov became FIDE World Champion in 2004, it remained in the women's cycle.
Since 2001, when Zhu Chen won the World Championship knockout, no less than eight other players have claimed the title. The current World Champion, Ju Wenjun, is the 17th in history.
Ju Wenjun in St. Petersburg where she won the World Rapid title as well | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Here is the complete list:
1st World Champion
Vera Menchik 1927-1944 Czechoslovakia / Great Britain
2nd World Champion
Lyudmila Rudenko 1950-1953 Soviet Union
3rd World Champion
Elizaveta Bykova 1953-1956, 1958-1962 Soviet Union
4th World Champion
Olga Rubtsova 1956-1958 Soviet Union
5th World Champion
Nona Gaprindashvili 1962-1978 Soviet Union
6th World Champion
Maia Chiburdanidze 1978-1991 Soviet Union
7th World Champion
Xie Jun 1991-1996, 1999-2001 People's Republic of China
8th World Champion
Zsuzsa Polgár 1996-1999 Hungary
9th World Champion
Zhu Chen 2001-2004 People's Republic of China
10th World Champion
Antoaneta Stefanova 2004-2006 Bulgaria
11th World Champion
Xu Yuhua 2006-2008 People's Republic of China
12th World Champion
Alexandra Kostenyuk 2008-2010 Russia
13th World Champion
Hou Yifan 2010-2012, 2013-2015, 2016-2017 People's Republic of China
14th World Champion
Anna Ushenina 2012-2013 Ukraine
15th World Champion
Mariya Muzychuk 2015-2016 Ukraine
16th World Champion
Tan Zhongyi 2017-2018 People's Republic of China
17th World Champion
Ju Wenjun since 2018 People's Republic of China
Translation from German and additional reporting: Macauley Peterson
