IN THE TOP 5

• Humpy Koneru is a chess Grandmaster from India. Her October 2007 FIDE Elo rating is 2606, placing her at #2 in the world for women (behind Judit Polgar), breaking the record of 2577 set by Susan Polgar for the second-highest ranked female player in Chess history and becoming the the 2nd female player ever, after Judit Polgar, to cross the 2600 points. She holds the record for the youngest woman ever to become a Grandmaster (not merely a Woman Grandmaster), which she achieved in 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgar’s previous record by 3 months.
• Hou Yifan is a Chinese Woman Grandmaster. She is currently China’s youngest ever Women’s National Champion. Her early tournament successes came in the form of first place in the girls’ under 10 section of the World Youth Championships in 2003 and third place (tied for first) in the boys’ under 10 section in 2004.
  Rated 2502 in the October 2007 FIDE rating list, Hou is ranked the eighth highest rated female player in the world.
• Harika Dronavalli is an International Master from India, for a while she was the youngest Woman Grandmaster in Asia. In a recent interview Harika said: “It does bother me when I win something big and no one seems to be interested, but I feel that there are other sports which are worse off in terms of attention”.
• Anna Muzychuk is a prominent Ukrainian chess player. She is a Woman Grandmaster (WGM) with FIDE rating 2469 (October 2007). In 2004 she became a citizen of Slovenia, and is the strongest Slovenian female chess player. In the category of girls up to 20 years old she is ranked 4th in the world and she’s the 16th strongest female player (October 2007). Muzychuk played first board for the Slovenian team in 36th Chess Olympiad. Beside others, she has defeated the Women’s World Chess Champion grandmaster Antoaneta Stefanova.
• Kateryna Lahno is a Ukrainian chess player. She earned the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) at the age of 12 years and 4 months, breaking Judit Polgar’s record to become the youngest ever to earn this title. She is now a full Grandmaster (GM). Although Lahno, unlike Polgar, competes for women’s titles, both have stated that their true goal is to be simply World Champion.

Congratulations to all these talented players who are breaking grounds for girls in chess!

IN THE TOP 20