FIDE Women in Chess Commission (WOM) and the University of Queensland released the second edition of the Gender Equality in Chess Index (GECI) on International Women’s Day on March 8. The report measured female participation and progress across 119 chess federations worldwide.

The top three positions in the 2026 GECI rankings remained unchanged from the previous edition. Mongolia continued to lead the list with a score of 89.26, followed by Sri Lanka in second place with 86.99, while Uganda finished third with 84.62.

In the 2026 rankings, India slipped by one position to 25th place with a GECI score of 71.04. This is slightly lower in ranking compared to the previous edition in 2023, where it was placed 24th. The index evaluates three main areas – participation, performance and progress of women in chess across each country, and India apparently did something wrong during this period.

The report places India in a good position in terms of performance, with a high score of 97.49. This shows that Indian women players are highly competitive at the international level. However, the participation score of 18.72 indicates that the number of women playing chess in the country is still relatively low compared to several other nations.

Why did India lose one place in GECI rankings?

India had a participation score of 18.38 and a performance score of 88.31 in 2023. Both scores have slightly improved from the last report. India’s overall score has also improved from 68.54 to 71.04. The only dip is in India’s progress score, which has gone down from 49.59 to 49.09.

This doesn’t mean that India has performed poorly, but other countries seem to have improved faster. For example, the United Arab Emirates jumped 73 places, while countries like Maldives and Uzbekistan also climbed sharply. This pushed them above India in the rankings.

Having said that, India’s participation score is still low, which means that not many girls in the country are taking up chess. If India wants to improve its position, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) must encourage more participation of girls across all age groups and also look to bring a woman member to the board. The current AICF officer bearers are all men led by president Nitin Narang.