American IM Levy Rozman shared his opinion on gender difference in chess. Rozman states that women make up roughly 20% of players, and says the split begins at an early age.

Levy Rozman

Levy Rozman

American IM, content creator

“I have almost five billion views now. People from 10 to 100 years old watch me. But the main change is significantly more women among viewers. In the beginning, the audience was about 99% men and 1% women. Now it’s more like 89% to 11%, and for some videos even 75% to 25%.

But in chess itself, the gap remains huge… If you look at chess overall, the ratio is about 80 to 20. And the higher the level, the fewer women. Because the split starts very early.

Young boys are more often sent to chess or math, and girls to dance or ballet. If a girl does get into chess, she often ends up in a group where 90% are boys. Many get tired of that by age 12 or 13.

Even before the pandemic, I managed to organize a kindergarten course where more girls signed up than boys. I think if boys and girls get the same opportunities and support from an early age, we will see many more female Grandmasters.”

FIDE has 492K and 61K male and female profiles respectively. Women make up approximately 11% of total players. 44 women players have achieved the Grandmaster title, which is 2.3% of all GMs.

Hungarian GM Judit Polgar is the only female player in history to reach 2700+. She reached a rating of 2735, and is No. 66 of all time. Six players, including Judit, reached a rating above 2600. The No. 1 female chess player is Chinese GM Hou Yifan (2596), as of June 2026.

Credit: Piaras O Midheach / Collision