Who are the 6 female chess players in the photo that went viral on social media?

On January 8, 24-year-old female chess player Julia Schulman posted a photo on her X account at the address @julesgambit with the comment: "This is what it's like for women to play chess" and received more than 4 million views.

The post was a screenshot of another post she made on July 29, 2024, showing six players attending an evening party with the caption: “The players of the evening get to rest.” Under the post, a user with the handle @rtm135 commented: “Something tells me none of you really know how to play chess.”

Schulman's post also garnered millions of views on other social media platforms, including Reddit. Whispering_Wolf responded sarcastically: "Because being beautiful and smart is impossible, right?"

Many people also criticized @rtm135 for his comments that were offensive to female players. "Something tells me rtm135 is being sexist," wrote nanana789.

Account rtm135 has been locked by X for violating the rules of this social network.

Pictured are Anna Cramling (WFM), Nemo Zhou (WGM), Jennifer Yu (WGM), Andrea Botez, Julia Schulman, Alexandra Botez (WFM). WFM is a female FIDE Grandmaster, and WGM is a female Grandmaster, titles awarded by the World Chess Federation.

Andrea Botez and Julia Schulman, although they have no titles, both have Elo ratings above 1,800, and are in the Top 30 Canadian female players and Top 100 American female players, respectively.

Anna Cramling, 23, is the daughter of Grandmaster Pia Cramling. Anna has represented Sweden in two Chess Olympiads - the world's largest team chess tournament. Her peak Elo rating was 2,175, achieved in March 2018.

Anna is more famous as a chess streamer, with her YouTube account having more than 1.37 million followers. On Twitch, she also attracts more than 460,000 followers, not counting other social networks. She is among the most famous streamers, both male and female.

Nemo Zhou(Chinese name: Chu Qi Wu), 25 years old, is the current number 5 female player in Canada, with an Elo of 2,172. She is a WGM - the highest title FIDE gives to a player playing in women's tournaments.

She was born in Jingzhou City, Hubei Province, China, grew up in France and matured in Finland and Canada.

Nemo is a former U14 Women's World Champion and a former all-age champion in Finland and Canada. Her peak Elo was 2,367, set in September 2016. She is also a popular chess streamer, with over 346,000 followers on Twitch.

Jennifer Yu(Vu Nhuan Ha) 23 years old, is the strongest player in the group of 6 female players mentioned above, with a current Elo of 2,283 and a peak of 2,379 (February 2018). She was born in New York, USA, to parents who are both Chinese.

Yu is a two-time US Women's Chess Champion, in 2019 and 2022, and won a bronze medal on board 5 at the 2018 Women's Chess Olympiad. She also holds the WGM title and has been ranked in the Top 100 female players in the world.

Andrea Botez,23 years old, a Canadian female chess player and DJ. She currently has an Elo of 1,837, and a peak of 1,906 (June 2024).

She and her sister Alexandra Botez own the popular chess streaming channel BotezLive, which has attracted over 3 million followers on Youtube and Twitch. The channel is only behind Levy Rozman (GothamChess) and Hikaru Nakamura (GMHikaru) in terms of popularity.

Julia Schulman, 24 years old, has an Elo of 1,859, which is also the peak of her career. She is currently ranked in the Top 100 female players in the US and is also pursuing a career in chess streaming. Her accounts on Instagram and X have a combined total of over 100,000 followers.