The History of Women in Chess
Chess has always been a male dominated sport. In many of those years, women were excluded from the game of Chess. Many of the greatest chess players, like Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov or Bobby Fischer have always been male chess players.
In recent years, there has been a major rise in female chess players. From the start of the Women's World Chess Championships, to the first woman gaining the grand master title, and to the Queen’s Gambit Netflix show in 2020, there has been a massive rise in Women Chess Players lately.
The Modern version of chess came out in the 15th Century. For 400 years women were actually banned from playing the game.
However, in the 1800s, there was a rise all over the world of Women Chess players! Many female Chess Clubs began to emerge, challenging the ridiculous notion that Women can not play chess, and allowing many women to learn chess, for the first time!
In 1927, the first Women's World Chess Championship was held, with Vera Menchik becoming the World’s First Women's World Chess Champion. Secondly, in 1991, Susan Polgar became the first woman ever to become a Grandmaster.
Although women players were making their come up in chess, many rising female chess players were bullied and harassed by their male counterparts. Many of them were even receiving death threats, making chess entering chess for women very difficult.
As right now, 3% of all professional chess players are women. Even though this number is ridiculously low, it is still much higher than what it was previously. Better yet, 15% of all chess players in 2023 are female!
In the future, as more and more women chess players enter the professional scene and the overall skill level rise due to competition.
What got you interested in Chess? Leave a comment below or ask any questions!
