Chess, the game of queen is an intelligent, tactical and strategic game. It is mainly dominated by males, but there are some queens who showed it to the world that they are no less than any male and had achieved the highest eave title attainable by a chess player, the grandmaster. In this article, we will see the list of top 7 youngest women players to become grandmasters in the history of chess.
1. Hou Yifan (14 years 6 months):
Hou Yifan, the current number 1 ranked women's chess player in the world, is also the youngest woman to get the Grandmaster title. She did get that at an early age of just 14 Years 6 months in 2008, to overtake Koneru Humpy as the youngest ever to reach this. Hou Yifan, is a Chinese Grandmaster who is four time Women's World Chess And is second highest rated female chess player of all time. She has semi-retired from chess since 2018 and is working as a professor in Shenzhen University from 2020.
2. Koneru Humpy(15 years 2 months):
Koneru Humpy, is an Indian Chess prodigy, known for her recent win in Women's World Chess Rapid Championship in 2019. She was born on March 21st, 1987 and became youngest ever to get grandmaster title in 2002 at the age of 15 years and 2 months and currently is the second youngest to touch this feat. She has also won many world titles from world youth championships and World Junior Championship since she was a child prodigy. She has recently come back after taking a break of two years and is currently ranked world Number 3 in Women's chess and has a Elo rating of 2586.
Also Read | Top 10 greatest chess players of all time
3. Judit Polgar (15 years 5 months):
Judit Polgar, Hungarian Chess Grandmaster is one of the greatest ever to play chess in the history of the game. Judit Polgar, was under the educational experiment of her father on Genius are made, not born. She was homeschooled and taught chess from a very young age. She was the youngest to achieve this milestone in world chess in 1991 at the age of 15 years 5 months to overtake Bobby Fischer in this feat. At the age of 12 itself she made it to the list of FIDE top 100 players list joining at 55th rank. She had a peak rating of 2735 in July 2005 and is still the highest rated woman in chess history and also only woman to cross Elo rating of 2700. Judit Polgar was reigning world champion in women's chess from 1989 to 2014 for a record of 25 years.
4. Kateryna Lagno(16 years 8 months):
Kateryna Lagno, Russian chess Grandmaster was born on December 27, 1989. She became women grandmaster at 12 itself and at 16 years she also became Grandmaster in 2007. Lagno's current Elo rating is 2547 and is ranked 5th in world rankings. She is a champion chess player and has won many world titles in chess from world Youth, junior, rapid, and 4 blitz championships over the years in her chess career. She is married to Russian grandmaster Alexander Grischuk and has 4 children.
5. Aleksandra Goryachkina ( 18 years 6 months):
Aleksandra Goryachkina, is the highest rated Russian chess Grandmaster with a peak FIDE rating of 2611. Aleksandra is currently the world no. 2 only behind Hou Yifan. Aleksandra became the grandmaster at the age of 18 years and 6 months in 2017 and became the fifth youngest to achieve this milestone. Both of her parents are rated 2200+ in fide rating and being born into a chess family, she had the privilege of learning chess right from early days and had won the World Youth Championship. She apart from playing competitive chess, is also involved in teaching chess in her father's chess school. She is currently one of the most successful and competitive chess prodigy from Russia who is making her mark in the chess world more prominently.
Also Read | Top 10 youngest grandmasters in chess history
6. Lei Tingjie ( 18 years 8 months):
Lei Tingjie is a Chinese Grandmaster born on 13 March, 1997. She got her women's grandmaster title in 2005 itself, but got her grandmaster title in 2017 at the age of 18 years 8 months. She is currently rated 2535 I. FIDE ratings and is a competitive chess Prodigy from china. She had recently won the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Tournament in 2021 and qualified for the 2022 Women's Candidates Tournament.
7. Alexandra Kosteniuk (19 years):
Alexandra Kosteniuk, is again a Russian Chess Prodigy as well as world chess championship winner from 2008 to 2010. She earned her Grandmaster at the age of 19 years in 2004. She had won many championships over the years from Russian Women's Championship, European Women's Championship, World Rapid Chess Championship to elite Women's World Chess Championship and Chess Olympiads over the years. She is also selected to the Women's Candidates Tournament 2022 and with a current FIDE rating of 2510, she is the upcoming player to be watched out in the upcoming tournaments.
These were the top 7 youngest women to achieve the title of Grandmaster, the highest ever title achieved by a chess player.
Must Read | Top 10 greatest female chess players of all time
