The Top Women Chess Players Over Time

If you've enjoyed our previous data videos of the most accurate chess players over time and the countries with the most grandmasters over time, then you'll want to check out our latest: The top women over time! From GM Nona Gaprindashvili to GM Judit Polgar to GM Hou Yifan, watch below to see how the greatest women to ever play chess have compared for the last five-plus decades.
Want to learn more about where we pulled our numbers from: www.chess.com/...
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[@chess]

Want to learn more about our methodology for this video?! www.chess.com/article/view/top-women-chess-players

[@tamirmorgan1640]

From Wikipedia: Polgár and her two older sisters, Grandmaster Susan and International Master Sofia, were part of an educational experiment carried out by their father, László Polgár, in an attempt to prove that children could make exceptional achievements if trained in a specialist subject from a very early age. "Geniuses are made, not born," was László's thesis... Proved his point 😂

[@whenthingsfly4283]

The amazing thing was that Judit wasn't even considered the "most talented" chess player in the family. She was just considered the most hardworking and dedicated, by far. Of course, while I'd agree she was definitely the most hardworking out of the 3 sisters, I'd beg to differ on the talent part as well :P

[@NeedBetterLoginName]

His case was only somewhat made. He himself was a good chess player so a hereditary link isn't ruled out.

[@whenthingsfly4283]

@@NeedBetterLoginName she was able to beat him blindfolded every game by the age of 7. He wasn't a chess master by any stretch of the imagination, but he did have a legitimate interest in the game and was a major influencer on why Judit was such a masterful attacking player.

[@meinkek7896]

Geniuses are born. Just IQ test their whole family. IQ is genetic.

[@gmsi7d371]

the 3 sisters became masters. this is unbelievable . insane . considering that only 2 % of players who take chess SERIOUSLY became masters. wich means 2 % of hard working players , not ramdom players who play once in a while

[@Ayaengels]

Nice to Anna cramling mum to be no 1 in 1980s

[@ArjanKop]

And still in the top 10. That’s amazing.

[@vrglio]

It's kinda sad that to some people (me included) she is more recognized as Anna's mum that one of the first women GM (not Wgm)

[@GeometricStalemate]

I believe Pia Cramling is more fitting...

[@peternicks7049]

You mean, Pia Cramling. I'm sure we can agree she (as all people) deserve to be known by their name.

[@andrejbogdanov2816]

Top10 for 40!!! years straight!

[@MariusOJohansen]

Huge props to Polgar for being ranked 8 in the world at her best (among THE best at the time), what an absolute unit of a chess player

[@jonguy77]

stop saying absolute unit please. Thanks

[@klourosaki6402]

​@@jonguy77absolute unit

[@AAA99953]

@@jonguy77 Unit

[@AAA99953]

@@jonguy77 Unit

[@AAA99953]

@@jonguy77 Absolute unit

[@SLKCHESS]

It is so clear from this video that Judit Polgar is the GOAT in Women in chess.

[@williamshake7559]

Judit is like Kasparov for women's classical chess and Hou Yifan is Magnus. The point where Judit retires and Hou Yifan rises sharply was the point where Hou Yifan defeats Judit in a game that came to be known and titled as "The passing of the torch".

[@Feathernight]

​@@williamshake7559She didn't cross 2700 tho

[@williamshake7559]

@@Feathernight and Judit only crossed it for like a month or two. Their peak are very close to each other. Yifan is still young. But the main point being their dominance against their contemporaries.

[@Feathernight]

@@williamshake7559 Lets see if she is going to surpass Judit in the future

[@sergiomwnw]

@@williamshake7559 a month or two??? The video clearly shows she held 2700+ for a good 5 years from 2003 through 2008. The match with Yifan was in 2012, arguably several years past Judit's peak.

[@andrejbogdanov2816]

Pia Cramling top10 for 40 years is one of the biggest accomplishments in all of sports history!

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

Um, no. Maybe if women’s chess was stronger

[@DUDE-RUDY]

Nona Gaphrindashvili started the revolution in chess

[@archirayanmondal5408]

From 1980s to 2020s Pia cramling is always in the list

[@alanprak80]

I think Hou Yifan could probably have overtaken Polgar as the greatest ever female player if only she'd focus on chess, but despite not doing so and balancing a career as a professor she's still the best female player currently active.

[@Sirciel]

Chess just doesn't pay well enough It sad seeing her not showing the world her talent in chess for a longer period of time but honestly money is more important

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

@@SircielThat’s a bad excuse. It pays enough for the top players

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

I don’t think so. But we will never know

[@josemanuico5613]

@@JohnSmith-oe5kxtop man well-known players

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

@@josemanuico5613 The for the top players. It just happens that they are all men.

[@jones_da9005]

It’s so impressive how constant the success of Pia Cramling is she surpassed 2400 literally 40 Years ago and always stayed above this line till today and even was a 2500 for a long time with a peak of 2550

[@vazorta]

Judit is the Magnus / Kasparov of the Woman’s division

[@morcjul]

@@NeonCat1911 She overshines all other women without ANY doubts - so in a way shes much bigger than even Magnus or Kasparov

[@LasCosasDeBrunin]

​@@toziassmittShe didn't peak higher?

[@danjor5749]

@@toziassmittHow did Yifan peak higher?

[@shucklesors]

@@toziassmitt this makes literally zero sense... do you understand how elo works?

[@Sirciel]

​@@toziassmitthonestly if she didn't decide to be a professor and continue her chess career, the conversation for goat of women chess might be different But so far feats wise judit polgar remain unchallenged

[@atulganesh7944]

Nearly 20 years later and Judit Polgar remains the only woman to ever cross the 2700 mark!

[@reachvidurmurali]

2736 exactly

[@elimlinrr6898]

The Elo rating has many flaws. Google the following: What's Wrong With the Elo System? by Jeff Sonas KZbin deletes all comments that provided url links. The fact that Judit Polgar plays only against men gives her an advantage in collecting ranking points, compared to Hou Yifan and Ju Wenjun.

[@lessormore001]

​@@elimlinrr6898Hou Yifan played a lot with men. As a girl, she took high places at the world championships playing only with boys. Later, she quit women's chess altogether and played only men with high scores.

[@majormononoke8958]

@@elimlinrr6898 lol, any women can play in the open tournament and many do...

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

@@elimlinrr6898They can play against whoever they want

[@grownupgaming]

Can you imagine Susan polgar winning women’s world champ in 1996 but not being able to say you are the best chess playing under your roof or in your house? Lol

[@cavemann_]

Imagine Asian parents be like "Your sister is better than you. Disappointment." Steven He would certainly relate

[@bestintuba]

Pia Cramling! 41+ years and still going!

[@krishalkharbuja]

The longevity of Pia Cramling!!!!!

[@TamThan4ever]

meanwhile Pia Cramling stayed in the top 10 chart for the longest period

[@Qwerty-cq3pe]

To Many Georgians in list ( gafrindashvili, chiburdanidze, Alexandria, ioseliani, kakhiani ) Population of Georgia only 3 000 000 :) 🎉

[@philipprapp9356]

Judith Polgar is such a queen.

[@coltonward8592]

Gaprindashvili is the real queen 🇬🇪

[@evidencemuriro5689]

OMG look at JUDIT POLGAR Impressive

[@marclm8653]

I saw both the men and woman's best players time line. And whats interesting is that there is always one player who is much better then all other players (by rating at least). Why could that be?

[@laniakealocal1934]

Good question, statistically shouldnt happen

[@GeneralPenemonto]

Isn't this because how ELO is calculated?

[@laniakealocal1934]

@@GeneralPenemonto no, it doesnt help

[@jennyalberts5641]

i would guess its because a champion is especially motivated/invested, playing against a champion is mentally challenging, and a champion will have the most money/resources available to them.

[@marclm8653]

@@jennyalberts5641 If so, this means that second and 3rd place dont get as much credit.

[@stephenl7048]

Vera Menchik had a peak rating of 2535 in 1929. Between 1927 and 1939 there were 7 matches for the world women's title, and she won all of them.

[@flora5090]

Expected the comment section to be horrible but was pleasantly surprised

[@ramachandra776]

40 women have become GM and Judit Polgar reached the top 10 super GM category . This number is going to increase considerably in the coming years .

[@Jefferson-ly5qe]

I hope so, it's been a while since we had a woman who could challenge the top male players

[@gaborcsordas]

it won't. Popularity of chess is temporary now, it's only due to Queens Gambit and the pandemic. In 5 years chess will go back to where it came from. The insane amount of energy required to reach these ELO-s will simply be not worth the gains.

[@sevenstarofheaven]

@@gaborcsordas at least some girls already took chess since then more seriously. There a potential player rn that could potentially pop up soon. Brave and daring eline roebers from netherlands

[@sevenstarofheaven]

Also alice lee. She's like a gm already I think ? And she just 14

[@user-jd5zt4of8q]

@@sevenstarofheaven don't forget Harika Dronavalli and Vaishali Rameshbabu from India - both in their early 20s and have scalped the top female players in the world already

[@SanjeevKumar-xr2nn]

Now i know why Judit polgar is G.O.A.T 😮

[@elimlinrr6898]

Judit is afraid of only one chess player: Hou Yifan. Ever since she lost to a 16 year old Yifan, she dare not play another match against Yifan. I think the reason is obvious: she wants to cling on to her title of being called "the greatest female chess player of all time".

[@misaki188]

​@@elimlinrr6898So what if she has beaten her? Like... Judit has beaten many of the top players, including Magnus... So now she is better? Yifan is a great talent, but she isn't better than Judit yet.

[@esquireputmoves663]

No woman overtook Judith she had to retire and she has beaten many world champions. Gary, Magnus, vishy this woman was a beast.

[@ryanmyers9081]

Judit the G.O.A.T.!

[@wilsingtown]

Wonderful contents. Thanks.

[@gusleffers9265]

Was just thinking about this idea haha… you should do more CAPS stuff please!

[@ropotirastas1290]

i love how pia just stays

[@pawnpusher]

Judit Polgar was pretty much the Women's World Champion throughout most of her career even if someone else had the "official" title. The gap between #1 and #2 is like the gap between stockfish and Magnus Carlsen.

[@elimlinrr6898]

Hou Yifan has beaten Judit at her peak but Judit has never ever beaten Hou Yifan.

[@Sirciel]

​@@elimlinrr6898hou yifan is a scary talent, if she didn't shift her focus to being a professor, the goat debate would have change But feats wise judit is still better

[@fahmiluthfi7991]

@@Sirciel She is the example how chess is harder for women, in opportunity, infrastructure, social upbringing context etc, Judit is the exception to the norm cause his father deliberately choose to fight it, talentwise i'll go for Hou Yifan, but for concrete achievement, Judit Polgar way ahead of her.

[@lessormore001]

​​@@fahmiluthfi7991As for the chess talent itself, many people thought that Hou Yifan had more of it than Judit Polgar. The difference was that she never wanted to focus fully on chess. This may be a female trait, but I also think that many men who we simply will never know felt the same way. Being the world's top chess player means not only talent, but also hours of analysis and hard work every day. Of course, not everyone wants to devote their whole life to it. It was different with Judit, because her father made sure that all her life she dealt only with chess. We'll never know, but personally I think Hou could be very high in the open rating, maybe even overtake Judit, if only she wanted to play chess professionally.

[@lessormore001]

It was the same with Hou Yifan and rest of the women

[@wutwhy9898]

I don't know about chess and I thought Alexandra botez was a prodigy but I can't find her name here

[@gigachad3218]

Music name?

[@user-th9vg3bu3m]

Ещё мельче надо было на алгоритме имена написать, чтобы "лучше" видно было!

[@Shan-jg4nd]

Pia Cramling

[@kubasek1111]

I CANT BELIEVE THAT THIS VIDEO HAS ONLY 21 THOUSANDS VIEWS. I WANTED TO SEE THE GRAPH WITH TOP FEMALE CHESS PLAYERS IN THE HISTORY

[@LavenderHV]

Amazing ladies 💜

[@jackhandma1011]

All the others are so close to each other while Judit is on a whole different universe.

[@shakkedgolan7954]

Can someone explain why Hou Yifan isn't in the women world championship?

[@DukeOfAwsomeness]

To qualify you either have to have won the year before or make it through candidates just cause she’s the highest rated dosnt mean she automatically is in it

[@advaykumar9726]

She's semi retired

[@lessormore001]

She gave up defending her title and playing women's chess. I think she just didn't have any competition among the other women. Of course she would have qualified for the world championships, but she would have had to play in the women's candidates tournament the year before, which she didn't. She only moved to open chess and is now also semi-retired, but still plays sometimes in strong tournaments.

[@andrejbogdanov2816]

Same reason why Magnus isn't world champion

[@andrewearth469]

Mama Mia, there was so many Svetlanas! ^_^

[@georgiasnewhorizonofficial4084]

Nona Gaprindashvili is best all of time from Georgia

[@ujjwalprakash3170]

Pia cramling is like vishy of women chess mantaing those rating generation after generation

[@Unpug]

Polgar dominance!

[@bestintuba]

Cramling longevity. 41+ years, and still going!

[@grownupgaming]

Judit would have had about 13 women’s world championships under her belt had she played. Ridiculous.

[@arthurpenndragon6434]

To all the incels about to swarm the comments, or normal readers: The competitive chess world is hostile to up-and-coming female players. Anna Cramling has spoken about how she even as a MINOR was sexually harassed by (official) tournament participants on multiple occasions, and for sure this was an even greater issue historically. Anna Rudolf was ostracized by a bunch of IMs for simply outplaying a few good players, and got accused of cheating with her *lip balm*. Males from a young age have much fewer such obstacles both in life and in chess and get to dedicate their full efforts to the singular cause. If all women had the luxury that Judit did with her supportive family, we would see women in the 2700s just like Judit was. Remember this kind of support is the NORM for young boys who show promise. The world, believe it or not, is still extremely hostile to women and girls especially in poorer countries but very much all over. Until this changes women will remain in the 2500s.

[@ItsAsparageese]

This comment is full of incredibly important context, and I'm very grateful you made it. Said it all better than I ever could. That said, I think it really detracts from the point to use language like "incel". IMO it knocks the whole statement down to a slightly lower level of discourse, and is really a harmful and toxic kind of rhetoric of its own. Along with being misandrist and a variety of other kinds of problematic, use of the term "incel" as an insult is also (somewhat counterintuitively) misogynistic; it perpetuates the idea that relationships with women comprise a social points system (i.e. it equivocates success with women to validity and acceptability as a person/equates unacceptability with lack of such success), and because of that, use of the term as an insult actually _leans into_ the toxic ideologies that many sexist men are operating on. If we don't want them to see getting laid as a social points hierarchy, we logically shouldn't participate in rhetoric that implies that that's how things work. So along with being a charged term that will repel many of the people who can most benefit from reading your comment, my position is that it also upholds problematic social paradigms. Of course, you're free to take or leave this criticism as you will; I just felt a moral duty to make it. I'm always concerned most with the word choice and methods of those who are supporting values I agree with, because I really value argumentative and rhetorical integrity. If there must be "dunking"-ish language in anyone's comments at all, I'd rather see it come from those on the wrong side of ethics/science. And your comment is just so fantastic otherwise, so I'm sad to see that part, which to me registers as an unfortunate blemish on an otherwise stellar work. (That said, I totally don't blame you for feeling prepared to expect the worst! Chess comment sections are the worst hive of misogyny I've ever encountered on the internet, and that's really saying something given the communities I've hung out in. I'm honestly thrilled that the comments section here is a lot more wholesome than I expected to encounter as well. I suspect that's because a lot of the worst sexists out there aren't clicking on this video to begin with lol ... but it's still a welcome relief. So yeah, I don't blame you in the slightest for coming in with a confrontational tone.)

[@arthurpenndragon6434]

@@ItsAsparageese Hey thanks for reading. I disagree with this interpretation of the term since it's not even the conventional one. The term "incel" is largely used by the members of the community themselves, and it is only used as an insult when an individual seems to be aligning to their ideology. The insult lies not in the literal meaning, which invokes the social point implications, but rather in *pointing out* that the person adheres to these ideas. In this context, I used the term to preemptively call out the subset of chess followers who insist on the "women are physiologically dumber" nonsense, which is precisely what makes them incels and warrants the insult. It was never about the literal meaning of the word which is barely ever used.

[@1stlullaby484]

😂 I love how everyone just stalls during the covid, 2020

[@braianballhrost9121]

Judith Polgar la mejor!

[@WuhSuhDood]

Women ☕

[@francescobarone4443]

Judit Polgar ! The GOAT !

[@earthaph5977]

I think she should participate men chess that time...

[@3zr1_]

1 minute!

[@stefanszucs-xm8cw]

2728

[@martenl7327]

They are all fish. Polgar you might say is the best of american fish.

[@adamcrapple6089]

Why are women worse at chess than men??? I mean this in no kind discriminating, but it is a objective fact. Why is it so??? And why is no one daring to tackle this question?

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

The differences are quite small, but chess is extremely unforgiving, especially at the absolute pinnacle. The top woman can beat billions of men, just a few men at the very top are even better

[@adamcrapple6089]

@@JohnSmith-oe5kx Well this still doesn’t answer my question. There’s just 1 woman among the top 100 players, while statistically there should be at least 6 (because more man are seriously playing chess).

[@adamcrapple6089]

@@JohnSmith-oe5kx I once heard that there is one woman in the top 100 but I just checked and saw that I was wrong: The best woman has FIDE world rank 124, the second best is on rank 333. That’s simply objectively worse and stating that they’re able to beat billions of men (ergo men that don’t even know how the pieces move) is a quite ignorant excuse.

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

@@adamcrapple6089 How about pissing off, if you want to call me ignorant? I happen to argue all that time that "women are not as good as men in chess",--because it is objectively true, for whatever reason--despite all the hate it gets me. But it is also true that the differences are very small, and that Hou Yifan (for example) can beat billions of men--which apparently gets me hate from the "men are better" crowd.

[@JohnSmith-oe5kx]

@@adamcrapple6089 That assumes that chess talent is equally distributed between men and women. I see no evidence that this is the case, and to the contrary, there is evidence that it is not. My view is that men are overrepresented at the extremes of chess ability.

[@shantoreywilkins651]

📈📉

[@thomas_the_cat]

damn, judit polgar was up there at the top for an eternity 😂

[@enpassantcheckmate]

epic

[@siddheshgaykar6435]

Men are better at chess...

[@meghanm6282]

Women are better at not raping and murdering

[@smellymomo]

but you aren't better at anything though 🤔

[@magiccreator4847]

First

[@generalcurry]

first

[@gvinianidzegivi]

Georgia!!!

[@prodigytruth3712]

nona gaprindashvili is the queen of chess.first female grandmaster in the world.i think she is underrated in chess world.first female GM,and first female who played with man.everybody should first off talk about nona and then about others.