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It is well known that (concerning GMs only) Lilienthal set a record - he died 3 days after his 99th birthday. Yuri Averbakh has since surpassed him and may well be the first 100 year old GM.

What about WGMs? It is trivial to look into the FIDE rating list, but e.g. it lists Edith Keller-Herrmann who died 10 years ago. Also, see above, the current oldest living WGM might not be the global record holder. (It might be, since the GM title was introduced only 1950, but remember also "retroactive" titles were given - Keller-Hermann got hers in 1978.)

My guess would be Květa Eretová (assuming the FIDE list includes all deceased GMs too, but at least this is not the case for male GM, as it seems).

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    Correction re Andor Lilienthal: Wikipedia gives his dates as 5 May 1911 to 8 May 2010, so he died 3 days after his 99th birthday, not 3 days short of his 100th.
    – Rosie F
    Jul 1, 2021 at 12:40
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    @RosieF: Ah, THX, if you ever need an egregious example that mathematicians can't calculate, I'm your man :-) P.S. The currently oldest living WGM might be Verica Nedeljkovic (~90): en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Verica_Nedeljkovi%C4%87
    – Hauke Reddmann
    Jul 1, 2021 at 17:10

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The oldest living WGM was named: Verica Nedeljković (born 1929).

I believe the oldest WGMs who are no longer alive should also be mentioned:

  • Kira Zvorykina. She was born in 1919 and died in 2014.
  • Květa Eretová. She was born in 1926 and died in 2021.

It's well worth mentioning that Kira Zvorykina played even in 2000 at the age of 80 in some senior tournaments.

It should be noted that various titles started to appear in the second half of the 20th century. And many Soviet woman players received them automatically as they were winners of numerous championships, e.g. Lyudmila Rudenko (born 1904), but not Vera Menchikova (born 1906) who died much younger at the end of WWII as a result of bombing. Some of them received GM and IM titles which are higher than WGM. Menchikova was the world champion among women 1927-1944. She also beat Max Euwe a few years before he became the world champion.

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Per Hauke Reddmann's comment, Verica Nedeljković might be the oldest living WGM, if the oldest ever, as of writing, having been born on September 16, 1929 and currently being aged at 92.

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