Top 2 Women Chess Players in the World
January 2019

China's Yifan Hou
2662
#1 Rated Woman in the World

China's Ju Wenjun
2575
Women's World Chess Champion
#2 Rated Woman in the World
Top 2 Chess Players in the World
January 2019

Norway's Magnus Carlsen
2835
The World Chess Champion
#1 Rated Chess Player in the World

USA's Fabiano Caruana
2828
#2 Rated Chess Player in the World

1,629 Grandmasters Rated 2500+
among
415,468 FIDE Registered Players!
How many chess players are in the world, we don't know! We do know 415,468 chess players are registered with FIDE* worldwide: 320,066 are men; 95,402 are women. 1,627 of them are rated 2500+ and hold the Grandmaster title.
Of the men, 1,616 (.5%) of 320,066 are Grandmasters rated 2500+!
Of the women, only 11 (.015%) of 95,402 are Grandmasters rated 2500+!
*FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs--is a French acronym for the World Chess Federation who provided the data, valid for January 2019.
FIDE awards the following titles:
Grandmaster
International Master
FIDE Master
Candidate Master
FIDE awards titles to players based on complex rules, but the most important is their rating. A 2200 rating is required for a Candidate Master, 2300 for FIDE Master and so on. Once achieved, titles are for life.
In addition--and somewhat controversial--FIDE awards women separate titles--Woman Candidate Master, Woman FIDE Master, Woman International Master and Woman Grandmaster. The women's rating requirement for each title is 200 points lower than the general counterpart. Some women hold both titles!
The Path to Grandmaster Can Begin Here
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"For a student to understand and progress in all stages of the chess game--the Opening, the Middle Game and the Endgame--the student must first know how to end the game in checkmate!" -John Bain, author of the best-selling scholastic chess workbooks Checkmate! Ideas For Students as well as the blog Endgame Checkmate Patterns For Students!

SEE> Part 2: Basic Endgame Checkmate Patterns which covers the Four Basic Endgame Checkmate Patterns that will yield collateral benefits to all aspects of a student's games!