The Women's World Championship was established by FIDE in 1927. It was a tournament that was held alongside the Chess Olympiad. It was won by the legendary Vera Menchik (picture right), who went on to win every challenge and indeed ever championship she ever played in during her lifetime. Menchik died, undefeated, during the Second World War, and was succeeded by Ludmilla Rudenko, who won a round robin in 1949-50 to receive the title.

After this the system was changed to mirror the men's championship, i.e. a cycle of Candidates tournaments and Interzonals was held to to pick a challenger. The first was Elizaveta Bikova in 1952, who won the title in 1953, lost it in 1956 and regained it in 1958. Then came the "Georgian era", which lasted from 1962 to 1991 and saw Nona Gaprindashvili and Maya Chiburdaidze dominating women's chess.

In 1991 the Chinese player Xie Jun defeated Chiburdanidze to take the title. She was defeated in 1996 by the oldest Polgar sister, Susan, who kept the title until she lost it in 1999 by default to Xie Jun due to the birth of her first child. After this FIDE installed the knockout system for the Women's World Championship, and this was won in 2001 by the Chinese player Zhu Chen. The last championship in 2004 saw Bulgarian GM Antoaneta Stefanova win the title.

All women's world champions

Women's World Chess Championship, Ekaterinburg, 10-27 March 2006

List of Qualifiers for the Women's World Championship 2006

Participants

Seedings