The 1986 Women's World Chess Championship was won by Maia Chiburdanidze, who successfully defended her title against challenger Elena Akhmilovskaya.
As part of the qualification process, two Interzonal tournaments were held in June 1985, one in Havana and the other in Zeleznovodsk, featuring the best players from each FIDE zone.
[1] Litinskaya won in Zeleznovodsk, ahead of Wu and Brustman; the latter only qualified after a playoff against Zaitseva.
Even though she lost ½-1½ to both her closest competitors, Akhmilovskaya still won the tournament by half a point, earning the right to challenge the reigning champion for the title.
She beat challenger Akhmilovskaya with a comfortable margin of three points and retained her title.