The people behind the game
Elisaveta Bykova
A determined competitor and chess writer who became the first woman to regain the world title.
- Born
- 1913
- Died
- 1989
- Country connections
- Soviet Union
At the board
The games. The ideas.
Explore classic encounters and championship battles. Play every move, or jump straight to the moments that tell the story.
1956 · Women’s world championship · Round 1
An open-file attack
Bykova’s first-round win in the 1956 women’s championship tournament demonstrates how rooks can use an open central file.
Read the position
Every move sets the scene.
Use the controls to explore the full game, or select an annotated moment below. Each explanation describes the position immediately after its highlighted move.
Complete move list 43 moves
The journey
A remarkable path.
Bykova held the women’s title in two separate periods, with Rubtsova’s reign between them. She also wrote about women’s chess and was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame in 2013. [1]
Explore the championship record →The championship record
Time with the crown.
- 1953–1956, 1958–1962Women’s world championship
Reigns are periods of title ownership, not a count of championship victories. Open-ended reigns reflect the record checked on 18 October 2026.
Sources & credits
Biographical details and title records checked . Country connections describe the player’s career and background, rather than a live federation listing.
Portrait: GFHund · CC BY 3.0. Displayed in monochrome and cropped.
