Women's World Chess Championship 2015, the title was won by Mariya Muzychuk, who defeated Natalia Pogonina in the final. Hou defeated Muzychuk 6–3 to reclaim the Women's World Chess Championship 2016 title for her 4th championship in March 2016. The following year Tan Zhongyi defeated Anna Muzychuk for the title at the Women's World Chess Championship 2017. Tan lost the title defending it against Ju Wenjun (with Hou not participating at this event) at the Women's World Chess Championship Match 2018. Return to match-only format Due to various hosting and timing issues, the championships had varied from their intended annual calendar in recent years. FIDE held a second world championship in 2018 in order to get back on schedule. After the 2018 championship tournament the new FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich announced the format would be changed back to matches only. He said the many different champions the yearly system created discredited the championship title as a whole. Aleksandra Goryachkina won the Candidates tournament, held in June 2019, to challenge for the World Championship. Ju Wenjun retained her title in the 2020 Championship. Women's World Chess Champions List of Women's World Chess Championships Most wins Vera Menchik – 9 titles Nona Gaprindashvili – 5 titles Maia Chiburdanidze – 5 titles Xie Jun – 4 titles Hou Yifan – 4 titles Ju Wenjun – 3 titles Elisaveta Bykova – 3 titles See also Development of the Women's World Chess Championship World Chess Championship Women's World Team Chess Championship 2009 List of female chess players References External links WCC for Women (Interzonal, Candidates, World Championship) A history of women's world chess champions Chessbase report on 2006 championship Women's chess competitions Chess Women Recurring sporting events established in 1927