The FIDE Commission for Women’s Chess is delighted to announce its official collaboration with the 14th edition of one of the strongest festivals focused on women’s chess – Women’s Chess Festival – Radzikowska Memorial!
This remarkable event, held annually in Wrocław, Poland, gathers top female players as well as amateur and junior players, and offers a wide range of activities, making it a true celebration of women’s chess.
The festival features a variety of tournaments, including blitz and rapid events, as well as its main highlight—the highly anticipated Match between Poland’s strongest women grandmasters and the Rest of the World Team.
Over the years, the event has welcomed some of the greatest female players in the world as part of Team World, including:
🌟 Antoaneta Stefanova (former Women’s World Champion)
🌟 Harika Dronavalli (India’s top female player, current Olympic Champion)
🌟 Pia Cramling (legendary Swedish grandmaster)
🌟 Zhansaya Abdumalik (Kazakhstan’s chess star)
🌟 Elisabeth Paehtz (Germany’s strongest female player)
🌟 Meri Arabidze (Georgian grandmaster)
🌟 Anna Zatonskih (four-time U.S. Women’s Champion)
🌟 Melia Salome, who also collaborates with the Girls Club project as a chess mentor.
And of course top polish women chess players like:
🌟 Monika Socko (only polish player with a title of a GM, 8-time Polish Women’s Champion, former Women’s European Champion, winner of the Olympic silver medal with Team Poland)
🌟 Jolanta Zawadzka (4-time Polish Women’s Champion, winner of the Olympic silver medal with Team Poland)
🌟 Iweta Rajlich (8-time Polish Women’s Champion, former top 25 in the world)
🌟 Alina Kaszlinska (Polish Women’s Champion, former Women’s European Champion)
🌟 Klaudia Kulon (winner of the Olympic silver medal with Team Poland, former Polish Women’s Champion)
🌟 Karina Cyfka (winner of the Olympic silver medal with Team Poland, former Polish Women’s Champion)
Brilliant Atmosphere & Celebration of Chess
Every year the Festival is a great opportunity for the fans to cheer for all those fantastic players in a really exciting format of a Match. However it is also an opportunity for the young talents to see the best at work, and even to play against them during blitz and rapid events. During the last edition girls were playing in the same tournament as former World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova or legendary Pia Cramling!
Also a wonderful opportunity to talk and make some pictures!
The Festival also focuses on promoting the game of chess as a whole – for example by organising a friendly Match against sponsors.
A Tribute to a Polish Chess Legend
This prestigious event is a memorial tournament dedicated to Krystyna Radzikowska, one of the most decorated female chess players in Polish history. Radzikowska’s achievements include:
🏆 9-time Polish Women’s Champion (a national record, from 1951 to 1969)
🥇 17 medals at the Polish Women’s Chess Championships
🥇 Gold medalist on the first board at the 1957 Chess Olympiad
🌍 Competed in two Candidates Tournaments (the World Championship cycle), securing a historic top 10 finish in 1971
Looking forward to the 14th edition
The Chair of the Commission, Anastasia Sorokina, as well as FIDE Secretary General Łukasz Turlej, attended the last edition of the Festival, and it was then that the idea for this collaboration was born. We are really glad to see it becoming a reality.
The organisers have been doing an incredible work throughout the years to create this event for women and girls in chess. It is our hope that our cooperation with help in promoting it even further.
We look forward to an incredible edition from March 7th to 14th, 2025, and we are thrilled to see some of the world’s best female players competing in Wrocław once again.
More infomation about the Festival here: https://womenchessfestival.pl/
