Women's World Go Championships

There is no such title, strictly speaking.

First there was the Bohae Cup from 1994 to 1998. This was followed by the Eastern Airlines Cup which self-styled itself as the Women's World Go Championship in 2000 and the Hung Chang Cup in 2000 and 2001. These were followed by the Haojue Cup in 2002 and then the Cheongkwanjang Cup in 2003, which however became a team tournament in 2005 along the same lines as the Nongshim Cup.

Five years later, in 2010, the Bingsheng Cup or Qionglong Cup was created. It seems to have stood alone until 2018, when it was joined by the Senko Cup and the Wu Qingyuan Cup or Go Seigen Cup. The Qionglong Cup might have been discontinued in 2019.

Combined winners

The "Women's World Champions", if you like.

Bohae Cup (Korea)

1994 Rui Naiwei
1995 Feng Yun
1996 Rui Naiwei
1997 Rui Naiwei
1998 Zhang Xuan

Eastern Airlines Cup (China), 2000: Rui Naiwei

Hung Chang Cup (Korea), 2000-01: Rui Naiwei x 2

Haojue Cup (China), 2002: Yoon Youngsun

Cheongkwanjang (Korea) : Rui Naiwei 2003, Park Jihun 2004

Qionglong Cup (China):

2010 Park Jihun
2011 Park Jihun
2012 Li He
2013 Wang Chenxing
2014 Choi Jung
2015 Yu Zhiying
2016 O Yujin
2017 Choi Jung
2018 Choi Jung
2019 Choi Jung

Wu Qingyuan Cup (China):

2018 Kim Jaeyoung
2019 Choi Jung
2020 Zhou Hongyu
2021 Choi Jung
2022 O Yujin

Senko Cup (Japan):

2018 Yu Zhiying
2019 Yu Zhiying
2021 Yu Zhiying
2022 Ueno Asami

Highest rated women before 1994

According to Go Ratings, from 1986 (the start of their records) to 1998 the strongest female players were Chinese: on top was Rui Naiwei, Zhang Xuan was in second place and the third was either Feng Yun or Yang Hui. This Chinese domination was eventually broken by Cho Hyeyeon.