High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! While the World Chess Championship title, contested officially since 1886 and unofficially long before that, is in theory open to all players, it was for many years contested solely by men. In 1927, FIDE therefore established a Women`s World Chess Championship exclusively for female players. Like the "open" title, the format for the women`s championship has undergone several changes since then, the most important of which are described here.