# – Name – Year – M (Match format) – KO (Knockout) – Country
1. Vera Menchik 1927–1944 (M) Czechoslovakia / United Kingdom
2. Lyudmila Rudenko 1950–1953 (M) Soviet Union (Ukraine)
3. Elisabeth Bykova 1953–1956 (M) Soviet Union (Russia)
4. Olga Rubtsova 1956–1958 (M) Soviet Union (Russia)
5. Elisabeth Bykova 1958–1962 (M) Soviet Union (Russia)
6. Nona Gaprindashvili 1962–1978 (M) Soviet Union (Georgia)
7. Maya Chiburdanidze 1978–1991 (M) Soviet Union (Georgia)
8. Xie Jun 1991–1996 (M) China
9. Susan Polgar 1996–1999 (M) Hungary / USA
10. Xie Jun 1999–2001 (KO) China
11. Zhu Chen 2001–2004 (KO) China
12. Antoaneta Stefanova 2004–2006 (KO) Bulgaria
13. Xu Yuhua 2006–2008 (KO) China
14. Alexandra Kosteniuk 2008 (KO) Russia
Chess Daily News from Susan Polgar
I prefer to see at least an 8-12 game match. A 4-game match is too short.
Curses to Kirsan’s decade-old diktat imposing this silly KO format on the chess world. Can’t believe it’s still around.
Chess fans want quality, not speed. That’s the true attraction: no1 versus no2, playing at a time control that allows proven quality.
And I agree with anonymous 12:46 above. A 8-to-12 game Kosteniuk-Hou match would have been quite entertaining.
I don’t like this KO system to determine the final candidates.
Now things change in men championship. Women championship should be changed too.
This comment has been removed by the author.
It was agreed to hold a Women’s Grand Prix of six tournaments to take place over two years, with the winner playing the winner of the Women’s World Championship, every other year.
http://www.fide.com/component/content/article/1-fide-news/2975-press-release
Susan Polgar 1996–1999 (M) Hungary / USA
thanks for listing the USA alongside your name
Why shouldn’t she? She moved to the U.S. in 1994. She didn’t win the Classical Women’s World Championship until 1996, 2 years after living in the U.S., and she has dual citizenship.
Four games was all that was needed to demonstrate that Kosteniuk is currently the best player. No other sport has the interminable matches that we think we need in chess. The problem is agreed draws .. what’s the sense of having a 12 game or 16 game match, when easily 50% of the games will be aborted contests.
I liked the KO championship.
It was a good way to give all competitors the same chance without taking years.
* Number 1 vs number 2?? ELO is everything??
* Round system ‘free for all’ with so many participants? (Almost) Impossible…
(And it doesn’t matter if this is the world championship itself or just a tournament to find out who may challenge the old champion)
* Complicated system of small tournaments to decide the challenger would take years…
So the only alternative that would make sense (in my eyes) would be a ‘normal’ 7 (or another number) round tournament with all the players that played here to decide a challenger (if I had written ‘to decide the world champ everyone would have grumbled).
But did the old champ even take part in this tournament?
So once again:
Great tournament, good and exciting KO format, great games (especially in the finale), great fights (coasting almost impossible) and of course
Gratulations to Mrs. Kosteniuk, a worthy champ (as it seems :)). Well done!
Best wishes
Jochen
Susan Polgar 1996–1999 (M) Hungary / USA
USA is proud to have a Woman World Champion.
I have an interesting (to me at least) question. Take the last World Championship Matches and see who would have won under the shortened conditions. For example Kasparov would have lost the 1985 Match against Karpov since he was down 5 games to none, etc. Would we still have the same champions?
It’s STUPID to have a 4-game World Championship. Another STUPID FIDE idea. You need at least 8-12 games to determine the true champion.
And Robert J. Fischer (USA / Iceland)
‘Hungary/USA’
I have no problem with Americans and USCF taking credit for nothing they did. But someone may get itchy for politics being mixed with chess again.
So Kosteniuk is the 12th champion really.