Chess for Women

The strongest chess countries in the world, especially those in Eastern Europe and China, run chess events for women, from junior to senior level, separately to men. The number of women playing competitive chess at adult level in Scotland is currently significantly less than those of men. However at junior level there is a growing number of girl players and there is a clear challenge for Chess Scotland to develop this talent to international level. At this time, Chess Scotland does not run any women only international events.

It is perhaps no surprise therefore that the top women player in Scotland comes from Georgia which is a country with a proud tradition for developing women world champions at senior and adult level. IM and Women Grand Master (WGM) Keti Arakhamia-Grant, now living in Edinburgh, is a member of the dominant Georgian team that won gold at the Olympiad and European Team Championship in the mid '90s. Top Scots born player is Women Fide Master (WFM) Elaine Rutherford who won the Women's World Amateur Championship at Hastings in 2000 when just 16 whilst WFM Amy Officer gained her title with a fine performance at the Turin Olympiad in 2006.

For many years Chess Scotland has sent teams to both the Chess Olympiad for Women and the European Women's Team Championships. However the recent changes in rules to increase team sizes to five players do not favour Scotland. The international rating list, at September 2007, shows only nine active female players registered to Scotland following WFM Helen Milligan's move to New Zealand.

The Chess Olympiad for women is held alongside the main Olympiad and at the Novi Sad Olympiad, in 1990, Alison Coull won Scotland's only medal in the women's competition - bronze on board three.

Reports of recent Olympiads and European Team Championships can be found in the news archive of International events.
Add links to the reports with the most recent first.

Forthcoming women events
European Club Cup for Women 2007 Kemer, TUR 2-Oct-2007 10-Oct-2007
European Individual Women's Chess Championship 2008 Plovdiv, Bulgaria 20-Apr-2008 4-May-2008
European Club Cup for Women 2008 Kallithea, Greece 11-Oct-2008 19-Oct-2008
European Rapid Women's Chess Championship 2008 no information as yet
European Blitz Women's Championship 2008 no information as yet
European Individual Women's Chess Championship 2009 Antalya, Turkey 4-Apr-2009 18-Apr-2009
European Club Cup 2009 (Women) Struga, Lake Ochid, FYROM 3-Oct-2009 11-Oct-2009
European Rapid Women's Chess Championship 2009 no information as yet
European Blitz Championship 2009 no information as yet