- Woman Grandmaster
Woman Grandmaster (WGM) is the highest-ranking
chess title restricted to women aside from Women's World Champion.The World Chess FederationFIDE introduced the WGM title in1977 , joining the previously introduced lower-ranking titleWoman International Master (WIM). [citation
last1=Hooper | first1=David | author1-link=David Vincent Hooper
last2=Whyld | first2=Kenneth | author2-link=Kenneth Whyld
year=1992 | title=The Oxford Companion to Chess | edition=2
publisher=Oxford University Press
isbn=0-19-280049-3
page=450]The WGM title represents a level of chess skill significantly lower than that of the unrestricted Grandmaster (GM) title, and in fact WGM requirements are a little bit lower than the requirements for the unrestricted
International Master (IM) title as well. The winner of the World Girls Junior Championship is automatically awarded the WGM title. The current regulations can be found in the FIDE handbook. [http://www.fide.com/info/handbook?id=58&view=article 1.0. Requirements for the titles designated in 0.31.] from the FIDE Handbook, 01. International Title Regulations (Qualification Commission)]Many strong female players hold the IM title in addition to the WGM, and since about 2000 the top 10 women players have been mostly GMs. [ [http://ratings.fide.com/top.phtml?list=women FIDE Top 50 Women] ] (The winner of the Women's World Championship is automatically awarded the full GM title if she does not already hold it.)The July 2005 FIDE rating list records 184 women holding the WGM title.On this list 63 women hold unrestricted titles in addition to their women's titles, including 11 who are full GMs. [ [http://ratings.fide.com/download.phtml FIDE Ratings List downloads] ]
References
External links
* [http://www.fide.com FIDE World Chess Federation official site]
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