International Woman's day

Here are the top 25 ratings for women, an appropriate subject for International women's day. The notable risers in the top ten were Nana Dzagnidze and Kateryna Lahno, whilst former US champion Anna Zatonskih is knocking on the door of the 2500-club.

Unfortunately for them, the most out-of-form players in recent months have been Antoaneta Stefanova and Pia Cramling, the latter having dropped below 2500.

Although the strength in depth of women has been improving, at the top only two of the leading 15 have their highest ever ranking including Hou Yifan.

Ranking	Previous Ranking	Name	Country	Age	Rating 1/3/11	Rating 1/1/11	Rating 1/11/10	Rating 1/9/10	Rating 1/7/10	Rating 1/5/10	One year ago	Career Highest
1	1	Judit Polgar	HUN	34	2686	2686	2686	2682	2682	2682	2682	2735
2	2	Humpy Koneru	IND	23	2607	2607	2600	2593	2600	2622	2622	2623
3	3	Hou Yifan	CHN	17	2602	2602	2591	2578	2577	2589	2570	2602
4	6	Nana Dzagnidze	GEO	24	2567	2550	2551	2534	2498	2478	2479	2567
5	5	Nadezhda Kosintseva (IM)	RUS	26	2567	2552	2576	2565	2551	2553	2554	2576
6	4	Tatiana Kosintseva	RUS	24	2559	2570	2581	2573	2562	2534	2524	2581
7	11	Kateryna Lahno	UKR	21	2531	2518	2522	2539	2535	2527	2518	2539
8	8	Anna Muzychuk (IM)	SLO	21	2528	2529	2530	2535	2527	2529	2533	2542
9	9	Viktorija Cmilyte	LTU	27	2526	2526	2514	2513	2527	2514	2485	2527
10	10	Dronavalli Harika (IM)	IND	20	2524	2520	2525	2515	2504	2491	2473	2525
11	7	Antoaneta Stefanova	BUL	31	2523	2546	2548	2551	2560	2560	2555	2560
12	13	Wenjun Ju (WGM)	CHN	20	2519	2514	2524	2516	2496	2500	2500	2524
13	18	Zhu Chen	QAT	34	2506	2495	2477	2480	2476	2476	2476	2548
14	15	Alexandra Kosteniuk	RUS	26	2503	2498	2507	2524	2519	2519	2524	2540
15	14	Maia Chiburdanidze	GEO	50	2502	2502	2502	2500	2514	2514	2514	2560

The US No.1, (now that she has overtaken Irina Krush) Anna Zatonskih, has made further progress, and now leads the remaining players in the top 25. Note the new entry, Elina Danielian, who was already in good form before the recent Doha Grand Prix:

Ranking	Previous Ranking	Name	Country	Age	Rating 1/3/11	Rating 1/1/11	Rating 1/11/10	Rating 1/9/10	Rating 1/7/10	Rating 1/5/10	One year ago	Career Highest
16	19	Anna Zatonskih (IM)	USA	32	2499	2493	2478	2480	2470	2470	2461	2499
17	16	Alisa Galliamova (IM)	RUS	39	2497	2497	2487	2482	2482	2487	2487	2560
18	17	Zhao Xue	CHN	25	2495	2496	2474	2469	2462	2493	2490	2544
19	20	Monika Socko	POL	32	2495	2489	2495	2486	2477	2485	2465	2505
20	21	Marie Sebag	FRA	24	2489	2489	2494	2499	2519	2524	2506	2533
21	12	Pia Cramling	SWE	47	2484	2516	2526	2509	2517	2536	2523	2550
22	22	Xu Yuhua	CHN	34	2484	2484	2483	2475	2488	2484	2478	2517
23	24	Ruan Lufei (WGM)	CHN	23	2480	2480	2480	2480	2480	2474	2479	2499
24	25	Mariya Muzychuk (IM)	UKR	18	2476	2476	2462	2464	2452	2452	2444	2476
25	37	Elina Danielian	ARM	32	2475	2454	2466	2466	2431	2473	2491	2513

Finally, there are now 68 women rated 2400 or more, whereas ten years ago there were only 38.

A good source of further information is the International Chess Federation site FIDE