Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina is a Russian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the No. 3 ranked woman in the world by FIDE rating behind only Hou Yifan and Koneru Humpy. With a peak rating of 2611, she is also the fourth-highest rated woman in chess history, and the highest-ever rated Russian woman. Goryachkina was the challenger in the 2020 Women's World Championship match, which she lost in rapid tiebreaks to Ju Wenjun. She is also a three-time Russian Women's Chess Champion, which she achieved in 2015, 2017, and 2020. In August 2023, she won the FIDE Women's World Cup after defeating Nurgyul Salimova in a tie break match.

The Women's World Chess Championship 2018 was a knock-out tournament to crown a new women's world champion in chess. It was the second world championship held in 2018, after Ju Wenjun had defeated Tan Zhongyi to win the title in May 2018. The tournament was played as a 64-player knockout type from 2 to 23 November in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.