World chess champion

Chess world champion can mean two things:

• A holder of the general title of world chess champion - so far hypothetical, as all world chess championships have been won by men to date.
• The winner of the women's world chess championship

The path to the World Chess Championship is open to both sexes on an equal footing, and women also take part. However, the top chess world leaders are clearly dominated by men. Closest to the title was Judit Polgár , who finished in the last sixteen at the 2007 World Chess Championships and in the last eight at the FIDE World Championships in 1999 and 2005 .

To promote women's chess, a world championship exclusively for women was introduced as early as 1927 (winner: Vera Menchik ). The long-standing world number one among women, Judit Polgár , refused, however, and only took part in open-gender tournaments. Her older sister Zsuzsa Polgár , who was No. 1 for women in the late 1980s, also refused to take part in the Women's World Cup before 1993.