Women's Candidates Tournament

The Women's Candidates Tournament is a major women's chess tournament organized by FIDE.^[1]

It is a final contest to determine the challenger for the Women's World Chess Championship. The winner of the Candidates earns the right to a match for the World Championship against the incumbent world champion.^[2] The inaugural Women's Candidates tournament was held in 1952 and continued for every Women's World Championship match (except 1958) until 1997, after which the match format was abandoned and replaced by a knock-out tournament. The Women's Candidates tournament was brought back in 2019 when FIDE re-instituted the match format as the sole format for determining the Women's World Champion.

Winners and results

Symbol key

°	Won the subsequent Women's World Championship

Edition	Host city	Prize fund	Winner	Runner-up	Third
1952	Moscow, Russia	?	Elisabeth Bykova°	Fenny Heemskerk	Olga Ignatieva
1955	Moscow, Russia	?	Olga Rubtsova°	Larissa Volpert	Edith Keller-Herrmann
1959	Plovdiv, Bulgaria	?	Kira Zvorykina	Verica Nedeljković	Larissa Volpert
1961	Vrnjačka Banja, Yugoslavia	?	Nona Gaprindashvili°	Valentina Borisenko	Kira Zvorykina
1964	Sukhumi, Georgia	?	Alla Kushnir	Milunka Lazarević	Tatiana Zatulovskaya
1967	Subotica, Yugoslavia	?	Alla Kushnir	Valentina Kozlovskaya	Tatiana Zatulovskaya
1971	Kislovodsk, Russia	?	Alla Kushnir	Nana Alexandria	Tatiana Zatulovskaya Milunka Lazarević
1974–75	Moscow, Russia	?	Nana Alexandria	Irina Levitina	Marta Shul Valentina Kozlovskaya
1977–78	Bad Kissingen, Germany	?	Maia Chiburdanidze°	Alla Kushnir	Elena Akhmilovskaya Elena Fatalibekova
1980–81	Tbilisi, Georgia	?	Nana Alexandria	Nana Ioseliani	Marta Litinskaya Nona Gaprindashvili
1983–84	Sochi, Russia	?	Irina Levitina	Lidia Semenova	Nana Alexandria Nana Ioseliani
1986	Malmö, Sweden	?	Elena Akhmilovskaya	Nana Alexandria	Marta Litinskaya-Shul
1988	Tsqaltubo, Georgia	?	Nana Ioseliani	Elena Akhmilovskaya	Irina Levitina
1990	Borzomi, Georgia	?	Xie Jun°	Alisa Marić	Alisa Galliamova
1992–93	Shanghai, China	?	Nana Ioseliani	Zsuzsa Polgar	Maia Chiburdanidze
1994–95	Tilburg, Netherlands	?	Zsuzsa Polgar°	Maia Chiburdanidze	Pia Cramling
1997	Groningen, Netherlands	?	Xie Jun°	Alisa Galliamova	Maia Chiburdanidze
2019	Kazan, Russia	€ 200,000	Aleksandra Goryachkina	Anna Muzychuk	Kateryna Lagno
2022–23	Chongqing, China	€ 250,000	Lei Tingjie	Tan Zhongyi	Anna Muzychuk Aleksandra Goryachkina
2024	Toronto, Canada	€ 250,000[3]	Tan Zhongyi	Humpy Koneru	Lei Tingjie

See also

• FIDE Women's Grand Swiss Tournament
• Women's Chess World Cup
• Candidates Tournament