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Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster, four-time

Women's World Chess Champion The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wh ...

and the second highest rated female player of all time.Chess: Hou Yifan, No 1 woman and professor at 26, loses in online return

Leonard Barden Leonard William Barden (born 20 August 1929, in Croydon, London) is an English chess master, writer, broadcaster, journalist, organizer and promoter. The son of a dustman, he was educated at Whitgift School, South Croydon, and Balliol Colleg ...

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

, 17 July 2020 Once a

chess prodigy The term chess prodigy refers to a young child who possesses an aptitude for the game of chess that far exceeds what might be expected at their age. Their prodigious talent will often enable them to defeat experienced adult players and even title ...

, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster (at the age of 14 years, 6 months, 2 days) and the youngest ever to win the Women's World Chess Championship (at age 16). At the age of 12, Hou became the youngest player ever to participate in the Women's World Championship (

Yekaterinburg Yekaterinburg ( ; rus, Екатеринбург, p=jɪkətʲɪrʲɪnˈburk), alternatively romanized as Ekaterinburg and formerly known as Sverdlovsk ( rus, Свердло́вск, , svʲɪrˈdlofsk, 1924–1991), is a city and the administra ...

2006) and the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in 2020 an ...

(Torino 2006). In June 2007, she became the youngest Chinese Women's Champion ever. She achieved the titles of

Woman FIDE Master A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

in January 2004,

Woman Grandmaster FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in January 2007, and Grandmaster in August 2008. In 2010, she won the 2010 Women's World Championship in Hatay, Turkey at age 16. She won the next three championships in which the title was decided by a match (in 2011,

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

and 2016, with a total of ten wins to zero losses and fourteen draws against three different opponents), but was either eliminated early or she declined to participate in the championships in which the title was decided by a

knockout tournament A knockout (abbreviated to KO or K.O.) is a fight-ending, winning criterion in several full-contact combat sports, such as boxing, kickboxing, muay thai, mixed martial arts, karate, some forms of taekwondo and other sports involving striking, a ...

(in 2012, 2015 and 2017). Hou is the third woman ever to be rated among the world's top 100 players, after

Maia Chiburdanidze Maia Chiburdanidze ( ka, მაია ჩიბურდანიძე; born 17 January 1961) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. She is the sixth Women's World Chess Champion, a title she held from 1978 to 1991, and was the youngest one until 2 ...

and

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the yo ...

. She is widely regarded as the best active female chess player, "leaps and bounds" ahead of her competitors. she has been the No. 1 ranked woman in the world since September 2015, and is 51 points ahead of the No. 2 ranked

Aleksandra Goryachkina Aleksandra Yuryevna Goryachkina (russian: Алекса́ндра Ю́рьевна Горя́чкина; born 28 September 1998) is a Russian chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster (GM). She is the No. 2 ranked woman in the world by FID ...

. She was named in the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...

...

's '' 100 Women'' programme in 2017. She has been semi-retired since 2018, and became a professor at

Shenzhen University Shenzhen University (SZU, Chinese: 深圳大学) is a municipal public research university in Shenzhen, Guangdong, China. The university is funded by the Shenzhen Municipal People's Government. Location SZU comprises two campuses, Houhai ca ...

in 2020, at the age of 26.

Career

Hou started playing

regularly at the age of five, but already was fascinated by the game when she was three years old. Hou's father, Hou Xuejian, a magistrate, often took his young daughter to a bookstore after dinner. He noticed that the little girl liked to stare at glass chess pieces behind the window. He later bought his daughter her first chess set. The three-year-old was able to beat her father and grandmother after a few weeks. In 1999, her father engaged a chess mentor, IM

Tong Yuanming Tong Yuanming (; born April 21, 1972) is a Chinese IM-titled chess player. He was National Chess Champion in 1993. Tong Yuanming plays for Bank of Qingdao chess club in the China Chess League (CCL). See also *Chess in China China is ...

, for his five-year-old daughter. Tong later said that Hou was an unusual talent, showing "strong confidence, distinguished memory, calculating ability and fast reaction". Hou has said that she took up chess because she was fascinated by the pieces."Chess grandmaster Hou, 13, is no square!"
by Adrian Butler, ''Liverpool Echo'', 4 September 2007 In 2003, Hou played against the chief coach of the Chinese national men's and women's chess teams,

Ye Jiangchuan Ye Jiangchuan (born November 20, 1960) is a Chinese chess player. He is the second Chinese player, after Ye Rongguang, to achieve the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in 1993. On 1 January 2000, he became the first ever Chinese pl ...

, for the first time. The chess master was surprised that the nine-year-old could identify almost all of his weak moves. "Then I knew she was an exceptional genius", Ye said. That year, Hou became the youngest member of the national team and won first place at the World Youth Championship for girls under age ten. In June 2007, she became China's youngest national champion. She was admitted to the National Chess Center, an academy for young talented players from all over the country,WWCC 2006 Ekaterinburg, Russia
Hou Yifan: "Dreaming of a house in Paris"
wwcc2006.fide.com, 22 March 2006 in

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

when she was ten, with leading Chinese grandmasters Ye Jiangchuan and

Yu Shaoteng Yu Shaoteng (; Pinyin: ''Yú Shǎoténg''; born March 26, 1979, in Guangzhou, Guangdong) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster, and is the personal trainer of chess prodigy Hou Yifan. He took part in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2002, but was kn ...

as her trainers. In order to better support her chess career, her family relocated to

in 2003. Hou's mother, Wang Qian, a former nurse, accompanied her to many international tournaments when Hou was young. Hou was homeschooled. As a teenager, she listed her interests as reading and studying and she listed her favorite chess player as

Bobby Fischer Robert James Fischer (March 9, 1943January 17, 2008) was an American chess grandmaster and the eleventh World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, he won his first of a record eight US Championships at the age of 14. In 1964, he won with an 1 ...

Life outside chess

Hou has attempted to balance chess with life outside of it. Against the wishes of her trainer, she enrolled in Peking University in 2012, studying International Relations. She took a full course load and participated in many extracurricular activities. She was offered a Rhodes Scholarship, and studied for a

Master of Public Policy The Master of Public Policy (MPP), is one of several public policy degrees. An MPP is a master's-level professional degree that provides training in policy analysis and program evaluation at public policy schools. The MPP program places a focu ...

at St Hilda's College, Oxford with the

Blavatnik School of Government The Blavatnik School of Government is a school of public policy founded in 2010 at the University of Oxford in England. The School was founded following a £75 million donation from a business magnate Leonard Blavatnik, supported by £26 million ...

. Competitors give her credit for what she has achieved in spite of her lack of preparation, and for her life outside of chess. Vladimir Kramnik said: "If she wants to stay the best female player, she can probably do nothing. If she wants to achieve her potential, she must concentrate fully on chess." Hou is aware of this as well, but nonetheless chooses to treat chess as a hobby, not a career. She said in 2018: "I want to be the best, but you also have to have a life." In 2020, at age 26, Hou became the youngest ever professor at

where she is a professor at the School of Physical Education, which includes chess in its Sports Training Program.

Results

2003

Hou Yifan's first major tournament was on 31 August–12 September 2003 at the Chinese Team Chess Championship (Open) in

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

. She scored 3/7 with a 2246

performance rating The PR (Performance Rating, P-rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s (Cyrix announced it in February 1996) as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of r ...

. She won her first international tournament when she came first (9½/11; +8 =3 −0, TPR 2121) in the girl's under-10 section of the World Youth Championship in Halkidiki, Greece in October–November 2003. In November, she made her debut in the National Women's Chess Championship, held at Shanwei, Guangdong. She finished in 14th place with 3½/9 with a performance rating of 2202.

2004

On 1 January 2004, she received her first International

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

rating A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both. Rating or ratings may also refer to: Business and economics * Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...

of 2168, which automatically qualified her for the title of

. In April, she competed at the Chinese Team Chess Championship (Women's) in

Jinan Jinan (), Postal Map Romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized as Tsinan, is the Capital (political), capital of Shandong province in East China, Eastern China. With a population of 9.2 million, it is the second-largest city i ...

Shandong Shandong ( , ; ; alternately romanized as Shantung) is a coastal province of the People's Republic of China and is part of the East China region. Shandong has played a major role in Chinese history since the beginning of Chinese civilizati ...

. She scored 1½/7 (TPR 2096) having faced an average opposition rating (R_c) of 2316. In November, she finished first jointly with Yu Yangyi, Jules Moussard, and Raymond Song, but third on tiebreaks in the boy's under-ten section of the World Youth Championship, held in

Heraklio Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban Ar ...

, Crete (9/11; +8 =2 −1; TPR 2119). At the 11th Asian Women's Championship in

Beirut Beirut, french: Beyrouth is the capital and largest city of Lebanon. , Greater Beirut has a population of 2.5 million, which makes it the third-largest city in the Levant region. The city is situated on a peninsula at the midpoint o ...

, Lebanon from 4–11 December 2004, she came in eleventh with a score of 4½/9 (+4 =1 −4; TPR 2278). The event was won by Wang Yu with 6½/9.

2005

In February, she competed at the fourth

Aeroflot Open The Aeroflot Open is an annual open chess tournament played in Moscow and sponsored by the airline Aeroflot. It was established in 2002 and quickly grew to be the strongest open tournament; in 2013 it was converted to a rapid Rapids are sections ...

(Group C) in Moscow, where she scored 2/5(TPR 2111). In April, she finished fifth with a score of 7/11 (+6 =2 −3) (tied for fourth) at the Three Arrows Cup 2005 ladies tournament in

, China. In that tournament, she defeated international master Almira Skripchenko and achieved a performance rating of 2393. From 28 June–6 July at the second China-France Youth Match at

Shenzhen Shenzhen (; ; ; ), also historically known as Sham Chun, is a major sub-provincial city and one of the special economic zones of China. The city is located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern province ...

Guangdong Guangdong (, ), alternatively romanized as Canton or Kwangtung, is a coastal province in South China on the north shore of the South China Sea. The capital of the province is Guangzhou. With a population of 126.01 million (as of 2020) ...

, Hou Yifan scored 3/8 (+2 =2 −4, TPR 2324). The Chinese team (

Zhou Jianchao Zhou Jianchao (; born June 11, 1988) is a Chinese chess player. In 2006, he became China's 21st Grandmaster at the age of 17. Zhou competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2007, 2009 and 2015. Career Zhou Jianchao learned to play chess at the ag ...

, Zhao Jun,

Zhao Xue Zhao Xue (; born 6 April 1985) is a Chinese chess player. She is the 24th Chinese person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Zhao was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2016, and ...

and Hou) won the match 19–13. In July, at the Festival Open International des Jeunes in

Saint-Lô Saint-Lô (, ; br, Sant Lo) is a commune in northwest France, the capital of the Manche department in the region of Normandy.

, France, she came second out of 75 players with 6/8(TPR 2305), behind Wen Yang. In 18–29 July at the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

in Belfort, France, Hou Yifan, seeded eighth, came in fifth in the Boy's Under-12 Section with 8/11 (+5 =6, TPR 2171). In October, she qualified for the World Women's Chess Championship to be held in March 2006. Despite being rated only 2220 and ranked women's number 28 in her own country, she qualified by winning the Chinese Women's Zonal ( 3.5) tournament, scoring 6/9 points with a performance rating of 2526 against a rating opposition of 2401, ahead of several better-known Chinese players. The sixth

World Team Chess Championship The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads ...

was staged in Beersheva, Israel from 31 October to 11 November. China fielded two teams – the men's and women's, which was only the second time in the championship history when a women's team competed in what traditionally has been a male team event. This was Hou Yifan's first major team tournament and she was the youngest participant there, at eleven years of age. She played as second reserve and finished with 0/3. The Chinese women's team drew one match and lost all of their others (+0 =1 −7), finishing last. The tournament was won by Russia, with China (men's) coming in second and Armenia third. In December, Hou came in second at the China Women Selective Tournament in

for the 37th Chess Olympiad to be held in May–June 2006 in Turin, Italy. She scored 16½/28 (TPR 2433) and gained 121 elo-points. She made the Olympiad team with the other top finishers, Wang Yu and Shen Yang.

2006

Hou reached the third round (the last 16) of the

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

in March 2006. Despite being rated 2269 and seeded 56th out of 64 players, she defeated IM

Nadezhda Kosintseva Nadezhda Anatolyevna Kosintseva (russian: Надежда Анатольевна Косинцева; born 14 January 1985) is a Russian chess grandmaster. She was a member of the gold medal-winning Russian team in the Women's Chess Olympiads of ...

(rated 2480) of Russia 1½–½ in the first round, then the former 2000 European champion WGM Natalia Zhukova (2432) of Ukraine 2–0 in the second round. She was beaten 0–2 by IM

Nino Khurtsidze Nino Khurtsidze (28 September 1975 – 22 April 2018) was a Georgian chess player. She was awarded the FIDE titles of Woman Grandmaster (WGM) in 1993 and International Master (IM) in 1999. She won the World Girls U-20 Chess Championship in 1993 ...

(2430) of Georgia in the third round to finish with a performance rating of 2504. In May–June 2006, China came in third and won the bronze metal at the 37th Chess Olympiad in

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in Northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital ...

, Italy. Hou Yifan scored 11/13 (+10, =2, −1), all played on the fourth board, at her

Olympiad An olympiad ( el, Ὀλυμπιάς, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the ancient and modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Greece's Archaic Era, it was not unti ...

debut. For her winning percentage of 84.6%, she won a silver medal for fourth (reserve) board performance, and her performance rating of 2596 was the third highest overall. The Chinese Championships for men and women took place in

Wuxi Wuxi (, ) is a city in southern Jiangsu province, eastern China, by car to the northwest of downtown Shanghai, between Changzhou and Suzhou. In 2017 it had a population of 3,542,319, with 6,553,000 living in the entire prefecture-level city ar ...

Jiangsu Jiangsu (; ; pinyin: Jiāngsū, alternatively romanized as Kiangsu or Chiangsu) is an eastern coastal province of the People's Republic of China. It is one of the leading provinces in finance, education, technology, and tourism, with its ca ...

, 25 June–6 July 2006.

Ni Hua Ni Hua (born May 31, 1983 in Shanghai) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and the national team captain. He is three-time national champion. In 2003, he became China's 15th Grandmaster at the age of 19. In April 2008, Ni Hua and Bu Xiangzh ...

took the men's title and

Li Ruofan Li Ruofan (; born April 30, 1978) is a Chinese chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). Notable title victories include the 2001 Asian Women's Chess Championship in Chennai, and the 2006 ...

the women's. Hou Yifan came fourth in the women's category V (2369) event with a score of 7/11 (+5 =4 −2) and a performance rating of 2477. In July–August, she performed badly at what has been traditionally the strongest women's tournament, the North Urals Cup in

Krasnoturinsk Krasnoturyinsk (russian: Краснотурьи́нск) is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Turya River ( Ob's basin), north of Yekaterinburg. Population: History It was one of the copper mining settlements established i ...

, Russia. Although seeded third, she failed to win a game scoring 3/9 (+0 =6 −3) with a performance rating of 2357. She finished eighth out of ten players. In 10–20 August, she played in the China–Russia Summit Match in Ergun,

Inner Mongolia Inner Mongolia, officially the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, is an autonomous region of the People's Republic of China. Its border includes most of the length of China's border with the country of Mongolia. Inner Mongolia also accounts for a ...

. The tournament was a two double-round-robin Scheveningen, one for men and one for women (category VIII (2444)). Russia won the men's event 26½–23½ but China won the women's section 28–22, winning the match 51½–48½. Hou Yifan was the highest scoring female player on tiebreak with 6½/10 (+5 =3 −2, TPR 2563). China and France played for the Trophée MULTICOMS in Paris 4–9 September 2006. This was also a Scheveningen team match with six men and three women in the teams. France edged out China 20–16 in the men's event. The women's section was a complete mismatch in terms of Elo ratings in favour of the Chinese and they confirmed this over the board winning 12½–5½. The overall result was China 28½ France 25½. Hou Yifan was again the highest scoring female player with 5/6 and a performance rating of 2498. In October in

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Y ...

, Armenia at the

World Junior Chess Championship The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE). The idea was the brainchild of William Rits ...

(Girl's section) despite being only 12 years old, Hou was the top rated girl with a 2481 FIDE Rating and went on to take second place on tiebreak with a score of 9/12 (+6 =4 −2), tied for first on points behind her compatriot Shen Yang. Her rating performance was 2469.

2007

In January 2007, Hou achieved a respectable fifth place in Group C (Cat. 10, 2486) of the

Corus Chess Tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

with a score of 7/13 (+4 =6 −3) and a 2513 performance rating. This result, together with WGM norms she had earned at the 2005 Zonal 3.5 Women's Championship, the 37th Chess Olympiad and the 2006 Chinese Championship (Women's) won her the

title, formally conferred by FIDE in late January 2007. At the

in February 2007, a few weeks before Hou's thirteenth birthday, she played in the A1 group for the first time. Hou started well with two wins out of two, defeating first the Russian IM Nikita Vitiugov (rated 2604) and then the 2001 European Champion, GM

Emil Sutovsky Emil Sutovsky (born 19 September 1977) is an Israeli chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1996. Sutovsky is the FIDE CEO since 2022. Previously he served as FIDE Director-General (2018-22). He was the president of the As ...

of Israel (rated 2629). However, in the third round she was defeated by the Russian Championship runnerup,

Dmitry Jakovenko Dmitry Olegovich Jakovenko (russian: Дмитрий Олегович Яковенко; born 28 June 1983) is a Russian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 2001. Jakovenko was European champion in 2012. He was a member ...

, and only managed one draw in her next five games. She rallied in the final round with a victory against the Greek grandmaster,

Vasilios Kotronias Vasilios Kotronias ( el, Βασίλειος Κοτρωνιάς; first name sometimes spelled ''Vassilios''; born 25 August 1964) is a Greek chess player and writer. He is a ten-time Greek champion (1986, 1987, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 1994, 2006, ...

, and finished with a score of 3½/9(TPR 2540). In March, at the first Ruy Lopez International Festival (cat. XV (2607)) in

Zafra Zafra () is a town situated in the Province of Badajoz (Extremadura, Spain), and the capital of the comarca of Zafra - Río Bodión. It has a population of 16,677, according to the 2011 census. Zafra is the hometown of Fray Ruy Lopez, author ...

, Hou performed badly to finish last with 2/7 (+1 =2 −4). Her performance rating was 2462. In April, she came in second at the China Women Selective Tournament in

Ningbo Ningbo (; Ningbonese: ''gnin² poq⁷'' , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly romanized as Ningpo, is a major sub-provincial city in northeast Zhejiang province, People's Republic of China. It comprises 6 urban districts, 2 sate ...

for the 2007 Asian Indoor Games to be held in October. She scored 8/14 (+6 =4 −4, TPR 2434). From 1–11 May 2007, at the eighth Russian Team Chess Championship (Women's) in

Dagomys Dagomys ( ady, Дэгъумес); is a microdistrict of Sochi, Russia (12 km from the city centre), known for its resorts, vacation spots and tea plantations. It was developed as a resort since before the Russian Revolution, when a botan ...

, Hou played for ''Southern Ural Chelyabinsk'' on board one and scored 6½/10 (+5 =3 −2, TPR 2523). At the 1st World Women's Team Chess Championship in Ekaterinburg later that month, Hou was part of the winning China national team that also included

, Ruan Lufei, Shen Yang, and

Huang Qian Huang Qian (; born July 18, 1986) is a Chinese chess player who holds the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She won the Chinese Chess Championship, Chinese Women's Chess Championship in 2012 and the Asian Chess Championship, Asian Women's ...

. Hou Yifan played on board two in every round and scored 7½/9 (+7 =1 −1), winning the gold medal for that board. Her performance rating was 2559. In June 2007, she won her first Chinese Women's Chess Championship in Chongqing. Hou was thirteen years old at the time, breaking WGM

Qin Kanying Qin Kanying (; born 2 February 1974) is a Chinese chess player who holds the FIDE title of Woman Grandmaster. She is a former Women's World Chess Championship runner-up and five-time Chinese women's champion. Career Qin Kanying won the Women's ...

's record as the youngest champion (she was fourteen years old when winning the title in 1988). Hou scored 9/11 (+7 =4 -0, TPR 2585). Second and third place went to

and Shen Yang, respectively. In July, she improved on her previous year's performance at the North Urals Cup in Krasnoturinsk, finishing in seventh place out of ten players. She scored 4/9 (+3 =2 −4) with a performance rating of 2436. The tournament was won by

Zhu Chen Zhu Chen (, ar, زو تشن; born March 13, 1976) is a Chinese-born Qatari chess Grandmaster. In 1999, she became China's second women's world chess champion after Xie Jun, and China's 13th Grandmaster. In 2006, she obtained Qatari c ...

and with

in second place. In 4–15 August, she competed in what was then her strongest closed tournament – the fifth Győrgy Marx Memorial (Cat. 14, 2582) in

Paks Paks is a small town in Tolna county, in the south of Hungary, on the right bank of the Danube River, 100 km south of Budapest. Paks as a former agricultural settlement is now the home of the only Hungarian nuclear power plant, which provi ...

, Hungary. Being the lowest rated player and the only non-Grandmaster (out of

Pentala Harikrishna Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He became the youngest grandmaster from India after attaining the title in 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior ...

Péter Ács Péter Ács (born 10 May 1981 in Eger, Hungary) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster (GM). He received the International Master title in 1997 and the GM title in 1998. In 2001 he won the World Junior Chess Championship. In 2002 he won the Essent tour ...

Csaba Balogh Csaba Balogh (born 10 March 1987 in Budapest) is in a Hungarian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. Chess career Balogh was taught how to play chess by his father, when he was six years old. At the age of eight, he began training with IM ...

Ferenc Berkes Ferenc Berkes (born 8 August 1985) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster. He is an eight-time Hungarian Chess Champion, winning in 2004, 2007, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018. In 2002, he was World Under 18 Champion. In 2004 he tied for ...

, and

Viktor Korchnoi Viktor Lvovich Korchnoi ( rus, Ви́ктор Льво́вич Корчно́й, p=vʲiktər lʲvovʲɪtɕ kɐrtɕˈnoj; 23 March 1931 – 6 June 2016) was a Soviet (before 1976) and Swiss (after 1980) chess grandmaster (GM) and chess writer. H ...

), she finished in last place in the double round-robin event with 3/10 (+1 =4 −5; TPR 2444). At the UK-China Match in

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

3–9 September 2007, China defeated the UK team with a comfortable score of 28–20. Hou played for the men's team and scored 2½/6 (+1 =3 −2) with a performance rating of 2540. The average rating of her opponents (R_c) was 2598. In late September, she came in first at the 2007 Chinese Women's Zonal ( 3.5) tournament in

with a score of 8/9 (+7 =2 −0, TPR 2675). In October 2007, she competed at the twelfth European Club Cup in

Kemer Kemer is a seaside resort and district of Antalya Province on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey, west of the city of Antalya, on the Turkish Riviera. Kemer is on the Gulf of Antalya, of sea coast with the skirts of the western Taurus Mounta ...

, Turkey for team ''Southern Ural Cheliabinsk''. Hou played on board two for the team, which finished fourth in the women's tournament. In the individual women's standings, Hou came in fifth with a score of 5/7 (+3 =4 −0) and a performance rating of 2556. From October 26 to November 3, she competed for Team China at the second Asian Indoor Games in

Macau Macau or Macao (; ; ; ), officially the Macao Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China (MSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China in the western Pearl River Delta by the South China Sea. With a pop ...

. The national team won team gold in the classic chess mixed team event with 11 match points (18½ game points out of 24). The Chinese team members were

Xu Yuhua Xu Yuhua (born 29 October 1976) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster and former Women's World Chess Championship, Women's World Champion (2006–2008). She was China's third women's world chess champion after Xie Jun and Zhu Che ...

, Hou Yifan, Wang Hao,

, and

Bu Xiangzhi Bu Xiangzhi (; born December 10, 1985) is a Chinese chess player. In 1999, he became the 10th grandmaster from China at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 13 days, at the time the youngest in history. In April 2008, Bu and Ni Hua bec ...

. Hou Yifan won an individual gold medal for her board two display with a score of 5½/6 (+5 =1 −0; 91.7%) and a performance rating of 2649. Hou participated in the 2007 season of the

China Chess League The China Chess League (CCL) () is a Chinese professional league for chess clubs. The league is organized by the Chinese Chess Association. It is sponsored by Youngor Group and was sponsored by the Shandongbr>Torch Real Estate Group(2005–2009 ...

, officially known as the "Torch Real Estate Cup Chinese Chess League Division A". She played for the ''Shandong Qilu Evening News Chess Team'', who became the 2007 champions when they defeated the 2006 champion Beijing team, 3½ to 1½.

2008

In the January

Corus 2008 chess tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Steel ...

Wijk aan Zee Wijk aan Zee ( literally ''Neighborhood at Sea'') is a village on the coast of the North Sea in the municipality of Beverwijk, the province of North Holland of the Netherlands. The prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament (formerly called the Corus ...

, Hou competed in Group B where she finished in a tie for seventh–tenth place (ninth by tiebreak) achieving 6/13 (+3 −4 =6) with a performance rating of 2598. She scored victories over three grandmasters, including a 23-move win over former World Champion challenger

Nigel Short Nigel David Short (born 1 June 1965) is an English chess grandmaster, columnist, coach, and commentator, who is the vice-president of FIDE since October 2018. Short earned the Grandmaster title at the age of 19, and was ranked third in the ...

. In February 2008, Hou gained her first

Grandmaster norm A norm in chess is a high level of performance in a chess tournament. The level of performance is typically measured in tournament performance rating above a certain threshold (for instance, 2600 for GM norm), and there is a requirement on the leve ...

(GM norm) at the

in Moscow by finishing in 31st place with a score of 4½/9 (+2 =5 −2, TPR 2605). This was followed in March 2008 with a victory at the first Atatürk International Women Masters Chess Tournament (cat. IX (2461)) in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, Turkey where she finished a point ahead of the rest of the field on 7/9 (+5 =4 −0) with a performance rating of 2674. Her victory in this tournament earned her a GM norm conditional on FIDE ratifying then WGM

's attainment of her GM title. However this GM norm was not used in her eventual official grandmaster title application. In April 2008, she competed in Mérida, Spain at the second Ruy Lopez Chess Festival tournament. In the category XV (2616) round-robin event she finished seventh out of eight players with 2/7 (+1, =2, −4) and a rating performance of 2467. Hou competed in the Chinese Chess League again in the 2008 season, which had eighteen rounds in six different cities from March to August. Hou's teammates were GM

, GM Zhao Jun, GM Wen Yang, and WGM

Zhang Jilin Zhang Jilin (; born June 24, 1986) is a Chinese and Australian chess player holding the title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2008. Career Zhang Jilin first represented China in the World Yo ...

. In May–June 2008, she became the Chinese Women's Champion for the second consecutive time with 9/11 points (+7 =4 −0) in

and a performance of 2599. At the July 2008 First Saturday GM Tournament in

Budapest Budapest (, ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Hungary. It is the ninth-largest city in the European Union by population within city limits and the second-largest city on the Danube river; the city has an estimated population ...

, Hou was top seed, but came in second place with 9/12, missing a GM norm by half a point. Her performance rating was 2574. In August 2008 she competed in the

held at

Gaziantep Gaziantep (), previously and still informally called Aintab or Antep (), is a major city and capital of the Gaziantep Province, in the westernmost part of Turkey's Southeastern Anatolia Region and partially in the Mediterranean Region, approxi ...

, Turkey where she competed in the general ("boys'") section for the first time in her career. She was the only girl in this section and was the sixteenth seed on the entrant's list. Hou finished joint third–seventh on 9/13 (+6 =6 −1), achieving a performance rating of 2661 and her second GM norm. In September 2008, FIDE referred to her as a "GM-elect", indicating that her Atatürk norm had been confirmed. This meant that Hou Yifan qualified for the grandmaster title in August at the age of 14 years, 6 months, 2 days, making her one of the youngest grandmasters in history, as well as the youngest female. In August–September 2008, she competed in her second

at Nalchik, Russia. She had qualified by being one of the six highest rated players from the average of the July 2006–January 2007 period. In this knockout

tournament A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses: # One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...

, she was seeded third out of 64 players. She defeated WGM

Mona Khaled Mona Khaled (born 9 April 1994) is an Egyptian chess player. She is the first Egyptian and Arabic Player to achieve the Woman Grandmaster Title. Mona is the first and only girl to ever win the Egyptian Chess Championship in 2013. She has at tim ...

(Egypt) 2–0 in the first round and WGM Batkhuyagiin Möngöntuul (Mongolia), 2–0 in the second. In third round, she had to go to rapid

playoff The playoffs, play-offs, postseason or finals of a sports league are a competition played after the regular season by the top competitors to determine the league champion or a similar accolade. Depending on the league, the playoffs may be eithe ...

s to eventually beat IM

Elena Sedina Elena Sedina (russian: Елена Седина; ua, Оле́на Се́діна, ''Olena Sedina''; born 1 June 1968 in Kyiv) is a Ukrainian-Italian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM) ...

(Italy) 3–1 (1–1, 2–0). In the quarterfinals she defeated Armenian IM Lilit Mkrtchian 1½–½, followed by Indian GM Humpy Koneru, the second seed, in the semifinals (4–2 overall, 1–1, 1–1, 2–0). She lost the final to

Alexandra Kosteniuk Alexandra Konstantinovna Kosteniuk (russian: Алекса́ндра Константи́новна Костеню́к; born 23 April 1984) is a Russian chess grandmaster who is the former Women's World Rapid Chess Champion in 2021, and the for ...

of Russia, 2½–1½. Nonetheless, she became the youngest ever finalist for the Women's World Championship title, earning an automatic International Master (IM) title and a "runner-up 9-game grandmaster norm", her fourth GM norm overall. Her performance rating for the entire championship was 2536. Hou participated at the first

World Mind Sports Games The World Mind Sports Games (WMSG) was a multi-sport event created by the International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) as a "stepping stone on the path of introducing a third kind of Olympic Games" after the Summer and the Winter Olympics". The i ...

from 3–18 October as a member of the Chinese team, winning the bronze medal in the Women's Individual Blitz event, the gold medal in the Mixed Pairs Rapid event (with

), the silver medal in the Women's Teams Blitz event, and the gold medal in the Women's Teams Rapid event. In mid-late October, playing board one for team Spartak Vidnoe in the thirteenth European Club Cup held in Kallithea, Greece she scored 2/4 (+1 −1 =2, TPR 2448) helping her team to a second-place finish. Very shortly thereafter she played in the

Cap d'Agde Cap d'Agde () is a seaside resort on France's Mediterranean coast. It is located in the commune of Agde, in the Hérault department within the region of Occitanie. Cap d'Agde was planned by architect Jean Le Couteur as part of one of the l ...

Rapid tournament from 24 October to 1 November, losing to former world champion

Anatoly Karpov Anatoly Yevgenyevich Karpov ( rus, links=no, Анато́лий Евге́ньевич Ка́рпов, p=ɐnɐˈtolʲɪj jɪvˈɡʲenʲjɪvʲɪtɕ ˈkarpəf; born May 23, 1951) is a Russian and former Soviet chess grandmaster, former World Che ...

in a tiebreaker match at the end of the qualifying stage, despite winning the second tiebreak game. At the 38th Chess Olympiad in

Dresden Dresden (, ; Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; wen, label=Upper Sorbian, Drježdźany) is the capital city of the German state of Saxony and its second most populous city, after Leipzig. It is the 12th most populous city of Germany, the fourth larg ...

from 12 to 25 November, she played at the number 1 board in the Chinese women's team. Although her team did not win a prize, she still placed third in the individual board prize. She played in every round with a final result of 7½/11 (+5, =5, −1, TPR 2563). At the 79th FIDE Congress, held on 16–26 November 2008 in

, Germany, her GM title was approved making her the 27th Chinese Grandmaster.Titles awarded at the 79th FIDE Congress in Dresden, Germany
(16–26 November 2008) Her three approved GM norms were: *

Tournament A1 in Moscow, February 2008; score 4½/9 (requirement=4½ points) *

, August 2008; score 9/13 (requirement=8 points) * World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik, September 2008; reached the final round (equivalent to a 9-game GM norm)

2009

Hou Yifan competed in the Grandmaster Group B of the 71st

Corus chess tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

from 16 January to 1 February 2009. She was seeded twelfth out of fourteen players and finished joint ninth–tenth with a performance rating of 2620. Between 7–19 March, she finished third in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Tournament in Istanbul, scoring 8/11 (+6=4–1, TPR 2649). From 12 to 23 May, she competed at the 8th Asia Continental Chess Championship at the Subic Exhibition and Convention Center, Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Olongapo City, Philippines. She scored 7½/11 with a 2640 performance, finishing seventh out of 86 on

tiebreak In games and sports, a tiebreaker or tiebreak is used to determine a winner from among players or teams that are tied at the end of a contest, or a set of contests. General operation In matches In some situations, the tiebreaker may consi ...

. By finishing in the top ten she qualified for the 2009 World Cup. From 9–15 August 2009 at the Jubilee Open,

Zürich Zürich () is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zürich. It is located in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zürich. As of January 2020, the municipality has 43 ...

, she won the "best female player" prize by coming joint seventeenth with 6½/9 (+5 −1 =3, TPR 2590). From 19 August to 1 September at the NH Hotels Risings Stars vs Experienced,

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, she finished with a score of 3½/10 (+1 −4 =5, TPR 2548). She was defeated in the first round at the

Chess World Cup 2009 The Chess World Cup 2009 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, played between 20 November and 14 December 2009, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The Cup winner qualified for the Candidates stage of the World Chess Championship 2012. Boris ...

Khanty-Mansiysk Khanty-Mansiysk ( rus, Ха́нты-Манси́йск, Khánty-Mansíysk, lit. ''Khanty-Mansi Town''; Khanty: , ''Jomvoćś''; Mansi: , ''Abga'') is a city and the administrative center of Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug–Yugra, Russia. It stan ...

, Russia, 20 November – 15 December 2009.

2010

In January, she finished with 4½/9 at the Moscow Open. In February, she finished with 4/9 at the

. In April, she won the third

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = '' Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , su ...

Open 7.5/9 (+6 = 2, TPR 2730). In August, she won the 2010 Women's Grand Prix in Mongolia. In October, she was on board two for Cercle d'Echecs de Monte Carlo in the 15th European Club Cup for Women held in Plovdiv, Bulgaria. She helped her team to a gold medal win with a 4.5/6 score (+3 =3, TPR 2651). In November, she won the women's individual gold medal in the 16th Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. She finished with 8½/9 and with a performance rating of 2798. She won another gold medal from the women's team event, representing China as the first board, along with her teammates Ju Wenjun, Zhao Xue, Huang Qian and Wang Yu, beating Uzbekistan 2½–1½ in the final. In December she won the

Women's World Chess Championship 2010 The Women's World Chess Championship 2010 took place in Antakya, Turkey from December 2 through 24, 2010. The tournament, like the previous ones, was played in a 64-player knock-out format. Each pairing consisted of two games, one with white and o ...

in Hatay, Turkey, making her the youngest women's world champion in history. Her compatriot Ruan Lufei was her opponent in the finals. After four games at classical time controls, the score was tied at 2–2, but Hou won the rapid playoffs 3–1 to take the title. Her performance rating was 2585.

2011

In January 2011 she was due to take part in the Gibraltar Chess Festival, but pulled out because of a family illness. In April, she won the First Women Master Tournament in

with a 7/9 score (+6 −1 =2, TPR 2639). In June, she took part in a tournament in India, the AAI International Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2011. She finished with a dismal last place, but in August, she rebounded to win clear first place in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012 tournament in

Rostov Rostov ( rus, Росто́в, p=rɐˈstof) is a town in Yaroslavl Oblast, Russia, one of the oldest in the country and a tourist center of the Golden Ring. It is located on the shores of Lake Nero, northeast of Moscow. Population: While ...

, Russia. She then went on to win the second Grand Prix stage in Shenzhen in September 2011. In August, she took part in the

Chess World Cup 2011 The Chess World Cup 2011 was a chess World Cup tournament. It was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, played between 26 August and 21 September 2011, in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. The Cup winner Peter Svidler, along with second placed Ale ...

in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. She was one of the two female participants in the 128-player single-elimination tournament. Her opponent for the first round was

Sergei Movsesian Sergei Movsesian ( hy, Սերգեյ Մովսիսյան; born 3 November 1978) is an Armenian chess player. He was awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1997. He was a member of the gold medal-winning Armenian team at the 2011 World Team Ches ...

, to whom she lost 2–0, resulting in her elimination. In October she played on board one for team Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo in the 16th European Club Cup for women held in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia. Her top rated team placed a disappointing 4th place, with Hou scoring 4/6 (+4 −2, TPR 2526) In November Hou successfully defended her women's world champion title in the

Women's World Chess Championship 2011 The Women's World Chess Championship 2011 was the 35th of its kind. It was organised by FIDE and was played in a match format between the defending champion and a challenger, determined via the FIDE Grand Prix series. On 8 August 2011 the match ...

Tirana Tirana ( , ; aln, Tirona) is the capital and largest city of Albania. It is located in the centre of the country, enclosed by mountains and hills with Dajti rising to the east and a slight valley to the northwest overlooking the Adriatic Sea ...

Albania Albania ( ; sq, Shqipëri or ), or , also or . officially the Republic of Albania ( sq, Republika e Shqipërisë), is a country in Southeastern Europe. It is located on the Adriatic and Ionian Seas within the Mediterranean Sea and shares ...

against

Koneru Humpy Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years ...

. Hou won 3 games and drew 5 in the ten-game match, winning the title with two games to spare. Her performance rating for the match was 2741. Beginning December, Hou played in the 2011 SportAccord World Mind Games, held in Beijing, China which consisted of 3 events, rapid, blitz and blindfold. She placed joined 5–7th, 6th on tiebreaks with a 4/7 score (+2 −1 =4) in the rapid portion, but winning both the blitz and the blindfold portions with 11.5/15 (+9 −1 = 5) and 5.5/7 (+5 −1 =1) scores respectively. Afterwards, Hou played for China in the Women's World Chess Team Championship in Mardin, Turkey. The 5 person team, arranged according to rating, consisted of herself, WGM

Ju Wenjun Ju Wenjun (; born 31 January 1991) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. She is the current Women's World Chess Champion. In March 2017 she became the fifth woman to achieve a rating of 2600. She is a three-time Women's World Chess Champion having w ...

, GM

, WGM

Tan Zhongyi Tan Zhongyi (; born 29 May 1991) is a Chinese chess player who holds the title of grandmaster (GM). She is a former Women's World Champion, winning the 2017 knockout edition of the world championship in Iran where she defeated Anna Muzychuk i ...

and WGM Zhang Xiaowen. China was the clear winner with 16 match points, having lost but one match to Ukraine in the 8th round and winning the rest, ahead of the runner-up Russia by three match points. Georgia grabbed bronze with 12 match points. Hou scored five points from the seven games she played (Wenjun played the first board for Round 1 and Round 2) (+3 = 4, TPR 2648).

2012

Hou started 2012 by taking equal first place at Tradewise alongside

at the Gibraltar Chess Festival scoring 8/10 (+7 −1 =2) with a tournament performance of 2872. She came second on tiebreak when she lost the 2 game blitz playoff against Short by 1.5–0.5. She scored 5/7 against the 7 GMs she played rated 2700 or higher. This included 4 wins against

Zoltán Almási Zoltán Almási (born August 29, 1976) is a Hungarian chess player. Awarded the title Grandmaster by FIDE in 1993, he is a nine-time Hungarian champion, winning in 1995, 1997, 1999, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2019. Almási has compete ...

(2717),

(2710) (Polgar's first loss against a female player after 22 years),

Lê Quang Liêm Lê Quang Liêm (born 13 March 1991) is a Vietnamese chess grandmaster, the top-ranked of his country. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006. Liêm is the current Asian champion and was the World Blitz Chess Champion in 2013. ...

(2714) and

Alexei Shirov Alexei Shirov (, lv, Aleksejs Širovs; born 4 July 1972) is a Latvian and Spanish chess player. Shirov was ranked number two in the world in 1994. He won a match against Vladimir Kramnik in 1998 to qualify to play as challenger for the classic ...

(2710), 2 draws against Michael Adams (2724) and

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov Shahriyar Hamid oghlu Mammadyarov ( az, Şəhriyar Həmid oğlu Məmmədyarov; born 12 April 1985), known internationally as Shakhriyar Mamedyarov , is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster. he is ranked No. 1 in Azerbaijan and No. 13 in the world. ...

(2747), whilst her only loss came against

Krishnan Sasikiran Krishnan Sasikiran (Tamil: கிருஷ்ணன் சசிகிரண்; born 7 January 1981) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was one of Viswanathan Anand's seconds in the World Chess Championship 2013. Chess career Born in Madra ...

(2700) in a close endgame of Q (with a pawn up) versus R+R with black. From 6 to 13 March, she played and finished joint 2nd–8th in the 2012 Reykjavik Open 7/9 (+5 =4, TPR 2677). From 27 March to 7 April, she participated in the 2012 China Chess Individual Tournament Group A, the determiner of China's National Champion. She finished joint 7th–9th, 7th by tiebreak. 5/11 (+1 −2 =8; TPR 2560). From April 13 to April 19, Hou played in the 2012 Bangkok Chess Club open. Seeded third by rating, she finished 14th, 6/9 (+4 −1 = 4; TPR 2500). From 29 May to 7 June, she played in the 3rd Hainan Danzhou Grand Master Chess Tournament that traditionally showcased the top 10 highest rated Chinese players, although the two highest rated players at the time Wang Hao and Li Chao did not participate. Seeded 6th by rating, Hou finished in 10th and last place with 3/9. From June 9 to June 22, Hou played in the 4th leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012 held in

Kazan Kazan ( ; rus, Казань, p=kɐˈzanʲ; tt-Cyrl, Казан, ''Qazan'', IPA: ɑzan is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Tatarstan in Russia. The city lies at the confluence of the Volga and the Kazanka rivers, covering a ...

, Russia. Coming immediately off the heels of the recently completed Chinese Men's super tournament in

Danzhou Danzhou () is a prefecture-level city in the northwest of the Chinese island province of Hainan. Although called a "city", Danzhou administers a large area which was called Dan County or Danxian () until 1993. The administrative seat and urban ...

, she started off slowly with 2 points in the first 5 rounds before closing strongly with 4 wins in the final 6 rounds. She finished joint 3rd–4th. 7/11 (+5 −2 = 4; TPR 2604). From July 16 to July 19, Hou played in the 5th leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012 held in Jermuk, Armenia. She won the event with a 7/11 score (+4 −1 =6, TPR 2598). This victory added to her victories in Rostov 2011 and Shenzeng 2011 made Hou the winner of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012 and secured for herself the challenger spot for the

Women's World Chess Championship 2013 The Women's World Chess Championship 2013 was a chess match for the championship. The match was scheduled over ten games from 10 to 27 September 2013 in Taizhou, Jiangsu, China. The match was played between defending champion Anna Ushenina, win ...

. At the 40th Chess Olympiad held in Istanbul, Turkey from 27 August to 10 September 2012, Hou Yifan led the Chinese women's chess team to a second place, silver medal finish. Hou won the gold medal for individual performance on board 1 with a 2645 TPR, 6.5/9 score (+4, =5). During the competition she was presented with the Caissa Cup, which honors the female player with the best chess results during the year. From October 8 to October 17, Hou played in the European Chess Club Cup 2012 as a member of team, Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo. She played board 1 with 4.5/6 score (+4 −1 =1, TPR 2609) and her heavily favored team swept the round robin competition with a 7–0 score. From October 19 to October 27, Hou played in the main even of 16th Univé Hoogeveen Chess Festival as part of the Univé Crown Group, a four player double round robin tournament. The average rating of the participants was 2695, making this a category 18 tournament. Hou finished in last place with a 2/6 score (−2 =4, TPR 2605). In an interview in

she said that she was going to start studying international relations at

Beijing University Peking University (PKU; ) is a public research university in Beijing, China. The university is funded by the Ministry of Education. Peking University was established as the Imperial University of Peking in 1898 when it received its royal chart ...

in September. She said that she was glad China was moving away from its one-child policy, she would have liked to have had a brother or sister, and she knew of women who had been forced to have

abortion Abortion is the termination of a pregnancy by removal or expulsion of an embryo or fetus. An abortion that occurs without intervention is known as a miscarriage or "spontaneous abortion"; these occur in approximately 30% to 40% of pregn ...

s. In November 2012 she was knocked out in the second round of the

Women's World Chess Championship 2012 The Women's World Chess Championship 2012 was a knockout tournament, to decide the women's world champion. The title was won by Anna Ushenina of Ukraine for the first time. Defending champion Hou Yifan went out in the second round. The tournament ...

. As the winner of FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012 she earned the right to challenge the new champion in the

. During December 12 to 19, Hou concluded the year by participating in the 2012 SportAccord World Mind Games, competing in the 3 disciplines of Rapid, Blitz and Blindfold. In the rapid event, she placed second on tiebreaks with a 5/7 score (+4 −1 =2, TPR 2713). For the blitz event, she placed 7th by tiebreaks with a 7/15 score (+6 −7 =2, TPR 2487). In the blindfold event, she won with a 6/7 score (+6 −1).

2013

Hou was invited to participate in the 2013

Tata Steel Chess Tournament The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is an annual chess tournament held in January in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. It was called the Hoogovens Tournament from its creation in 1938 until the sponsor Koninklijke Hoogovens merged with British Ste ...

Grandmaster A group in

from 12 to 27 January. This was a Category 20 event, and her first supertournament participation. She was the lowest Elo rated player at 2603 and seeded 14th. She surpassed initial expectations by finishing 11/14 with a 5.5/13 score (+3 −5 =5, TPR 2688) including a draw against then World Champion

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating o ...

. She competed in the 2013 China Chess Individual Tournament Group A in Xinghua, China from April 16 to the 27th. She finished in a six-way tie for 4th to 9th place, 4th by tie breaks, with a 5.5/11 score (+3 −3 =5, TPR 2609). From May 2 to May 16, Hou competed in the 1st leg of the

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–2014 The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

held in Geneva, Switzerland. She was the highest rated player in the event but finished 8th/9th, including a loss to the Women's World Champion 2012–13,

Anna Ushenina Anna Yuriyivna Ushenina (; born 30 August 1985) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster who was Women's World Chess Champion from November 2012 to September 2013. Personal life Ushenina lives in Kharkiv, where she was born. She is of Jewish ethnici ...

. Her score was 5/11 (+3 −4 = 4, TPR 2470). From 11 to 14 June, she played a four-game match with

David Navara David Navara (born 27 March 1985) is a Czech chess grandmaster, the highest-ranked of his country. Awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2002, he is an 11-time national champion (in 2004, 2005, 2010, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017, 2019, 2 ...

for the CEZ Chess Trophy 2013. All four games ended in draws, so the winner would be decided by tie breaks. After each player won with white in the blitz portion, an armageddon game won by Hou, as black, gave her the trophy. Her performance rating for the classical games was 2707. From June 30 to July 3, Hou was part of the team representing China in the 4th Asian Martial Arts Games held in Incheon, South Korea. She won a gold medal in the classical portion of the event with a 6.5/7 score (+6 =1). In August, she took part in the

Chess World Cup 2013 The Chess World Cup 2013 was a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, played between 11 August and 2 September 2013, in the hotel Scandic Tromsø in Tromsø, Norway. It was won by Vladimir Kramnik, who defeated Dmitry Andreikin 2½–1� ...

in Tromsø, Norway. She was one of four female participants in the 128-player single-elimination tournament. Her opponent for the first round was

. After two draws in the classical portion of the match, they proceeded to tiebreaks. Hou won the first rapid game with white and lost the second with black. In the next tiebreaker set she lost both games resulting in her elimination. As the winner of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2011–2012, Hou won the right to challenge Anna Ushenina in a 10-game match for the world title. Scheduled from September 10 to the 27th, the

was played in Taizhou, Jiangsu, China. She won the match in 7 games with a 5.5–1.5 score (+4 =3, TPR 2730) regaining her championship title. From 19 to 26 October, Hou played in the European Chess Club Cup 2013 as a member of team, Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo. She played board 1 with 5/6 score (+4 =2, TPR 2736) and for the second year in a row, her team swept the round robin competition with a 7–0 score. From 12 to 18 December, she played in the

SportAccord World Mind Games The International Mind Sports Association (IMSA) inaugurated the SportAccord World Mind Games December 2011 in Beijing. For all sports, the meet was invitational and the events were not world championships. Beside satisfaction of the participating ...

in the chess discipline. The tournament consisted of three events: rapid, blitz and the basque system. In the rapid event, Hou scored 5/7 (+3 = 4, TPR 2691) capturing the silver medal. In the blitz event, she won the gold medal with a 21.5/30 score (+19 −6 =5, ). Notable was that during the second day of the blitz event, Hou achieved a near perfect 9.5/10 score. In the final event played under the basque system, Hou won the silver medal on tiebreaks with a 7/10 score (+7 −3).

2014

From 11 to 22 March, Hou competed in the 2014 China Chess Individual Tournament Group A in Xinghua, her birthplace. She again played against the men in the open section rather than in the women's section. She finished in 7th place with a 5.5/11 score (+2 −3 =6, TPR 2558). From July 14 to July 24, Hou played in the grandmaster section of the prestigious

Biel chess tournament The Biel International Chess Festival is an annual chess tournament that takes place in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. It consists of two events, the Grandmaster Tournament, held with the round-robin system, and the Master Open Tournament (MTO), held w ...

. This was a six player category 19 event with an average rating of 2717 with Hou being the lowest rated player. She started with a win over Anish Giri and was tied for second entering the final round and could take joint first place by winning her final game against Pendyala Harikrishna. While she wound up losing the final game, Hou still had a successful tournament, finishing joint 3rd–5th with a 5/10 score (+2 −2 =6, TPR 2734). From August 1 to August 14, Hou participated in 41st Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway as board one of the top seeded Chinese Women's team. The team rattled off six straight wins before succumbing to the second seeded Russian team with Hou losing her individual game, as black, to

Kateryna Lagno Ekaterina Aleksandrovna Lagno (russian: Екатерина Александровна Лагно, ; born 27 December 1989) is a Russian (formerly Ukrainian) chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, she earned the title Woman Grandmaster (WGM) at th ...

. She ended the Olympiad with a 7/9 score (+6 −1 = 2, TPR 2671) leading her team to the silver medal. Her own performance was good enough to receive the silver medal for board one. Hou is the winner of

FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–14 The FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013–14 was a series of six chess tournaments exclusively for women, which formed part of the qualification cycle for the Women's World Chess Championship 2015. The winner of the Grand Prix was decided in the last sta ...

. From April 8 to April 22, she played in the 4th stage in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. Opening with 3 straight victories, she dominated from start to finish. Several times as white she eschewed her regular 1.e4 opening move and began with 1.c4 and 1.g3. She finished in 1st place with an 8.5/11 score (+6 =5, TPR 2695). From June 18 to July 2, she played in the 5th stage in Lopota, Georgia. Leading from start to finish, she won with a 9/11 score (+7 = 4, TPR 2773), a full two points over her nearest competitors. From August 24 to September 6, she competed in the 6th and final stage in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. She finished joint first with

with an 8.5/11 score (+6 =5, TPR 2686). At the final leg, the tournament's official awards, Big and Small Cups of Grand Prix, designed and manufactured by the Lobortas Classic Jewelry House, were presented. As the winner of the 2013–2014 Grand Prix Series, Hou Yifan was solemnly awarded the Small Cup during the official closing ceremony of the tournament. During September 13 to 21, she competed at the 18th European Club Cup held in Bilbao, Spain. Once again she was the top board for Cercle d'Echecs de Monte-Carlo winning the individual gold medal for her performance 5/6 (+4 =2, TPR 2749) while leading her team to a second-place finish. With the postponement of the

Women's World Chess Championship 2014 The Women's World Chess Championship was held from 16 March to 7 April 2015 in Sochi, Russia. It was a 64-player knockout tournament. It was originally scheduled from 11 to 31 October 2014 but problems in finding a sponsor and host city eventually ...

she played in the Corsican Chess Circuit in October and won, beating

Sergey Fedorchuk Sergey Fedorchuk ( ua, Сергій Федорчук, translit=Serhiy Fedorchuk; born 14 March 1981) is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2002. Career In 1995 Fedorchuk won the European Youth Chess ...

in the final. This has been described as the most important tournament yet to be won by a female player other than Judit Polgár. From December 11 to 18, Hou played in the 2014 SportAccord World Mind Games held in Beijing, China. The Mind Games consists of separate tournaments in 3 disciplines: rapid, blitz and basque. In the rapid event, she placed second capturing the silver medal, losing only to

Valentina Gunina Valentina Evgenyevna Gunina (russian: Валентина Евгеньевна Гунина; born February 4, 1989, in Murmansk) is a Russian chess grandmaster. She has won thrice the Women's European Individual Chess Championship (2012, 2014, ...

, the eventual event winner. Her performance was 5/7 (+4 −1 = 3, rapid TPR 2672). She won the gold medal in the blitz event with a 22.5/30 score (+20 −5 = 5, TPR 2718). Especially noteworthy in her blitz tournament was her performance pushed her official blitz rating to 2704, making her the second female player to cross the 2700 barrier in any rating format. In the final basque system event, Hou took home another gold medal with an 8.5/10 score (+7 =3). When Hou turned twenty one in 2015 she lost her junior status. She ended the year, and her junior playing career, as the reigning Women's World Chess Champion, the 2nd highest rated female player, the highest rated girl, the 4th highest rated junior and the 71st highest overall rated active player with a FIDE rating of 2673.

2015

Hou once again played in the 2015 edition of

held from January 15 to 25. She was the 12th seed out of 14 total participants in the Category 20 Master group and finished 11th with a 5/13 score(+1 −4 = 8, TPR 2670). While she performed approximately according to her rating, Hou had winning chances in a few of her games and even missed a drawing chance against world champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

after defending a difficult position as black for most of the game. Shortly after, she returned to the scene of her greatest chess tournament triumph, the Gibraltar Chess Festival 2015 held from January 27 to February 4. Seeded 13th by rating, she placed joint 3rd–11th, 3rd by performance with a 7.5/10 score (+5 =5, TPR 2772) pushing her FIDE rating to 2686. She also won the 1st place prize for being the highest scoring female player. Her excellent performance in this event resulted in her rating surpassing

's classic rating for the first time in the March 2015 FIDE rating list, ending Polgár's 26 consecutive years reign as the top rated female player in the world. For the first time since

in January 1989 a single individual was both the top rated woman player and the reigning Women's World Chess Champion. She played in the Hawaii Grandmaster Challenge 2015 in March, a two-day four player quadruple blitz and rapid round robin event. She began the first day with a 3.5/6 score before crushing her opponents the second day with five straight wins and a draw in the final game easily winning the event with a 9/12 score. Since this event conflicted with the

Women's World Chess Championship 2015 The Women's World Chess Championship was held from 16 March to 7 April 2015 in Sochi, Russia. It was a 64-player knockout tournament. It was originally scheduled from 11 to 31 October 2014 but problems in finding a sponsor and host city eventually ...

she relinquished her title to

Mariya Muzychuk Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk ( uk, Марі́я Оле́гівна Музичу́к; born 21 September 1992) is a Ukrainian chess grandmaster and Women's World Chess Champion from April 2015 to March 2016. She is also a twice women's champion of Uk ...

at the conclusion of the Championship. Hou played in the Nakhchivan Open 2015 in from May 1 to the 11th. Seeded 3rd by rating, she finished in a nine-way tie for joint 4th–12th with a 6/9 score (+5 −2 =2, TPR 2581). She played in the 2015 edition of

Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting The Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting is an elite chess tournament held every summer in Dortmund, Germany. Dortmund is an invite-only event, with the exception that one slot at Dortmund is awarded to the winner of the annual Aeroflot Open in Moscow ...

which ran from June 27 to July 5. With an average rating of 2724, it qualified as a Category 20 supertournament. Hou finished in joint 7th/8th with a 2.5/7 score (−2 =5, TPR 2629) Hou has been chosen as the first FIDE Presidential nominee for

Chess World Cup 2015 The Chess World Cup 2015 was a 128-player single-elimination tournament, single-elimination chess tournament held in Baku, Azerbaijan, from 10 September to 5 October 2015. Sergey Karjakin won the competition on tie-breaks after a four-game final ...

held in Baku from September 10 to October 5. She made it past the first round of a World Cup for the first time in her career before losing in the second round 1.5–2.5 to

after the 1st set of rapid tiebreaks. Her performance rating was 2685 for the event. From October 2 to October 15, Hou competed in the 1st leg of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2015–16 held in Monte Carlo, Monaco. She started the event slowly, with a 2.5/4 score going into the first rest day. This included a loss to rival Humpy Koneru before stringing together a streak of six wins, winning the tournament with one round to spare. Her final score was 9/11 (+8 −1 = 2, TPR 2766). She participated in an exhibition match against

Parimarjan Negi Parimarjan Negi (born 9 February 1993) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He achieved the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 4 months, and 20 days, which made him the second youngest grandmaster in history at the time. As of July 2021, he ...

held in the

Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis The Saint Louis Chess Club (previously named the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis) is a chess venue located in the Central West End in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. Opened on July 17, 2008, it contained a tournament hall and ...

from November 12 to the 15th. The four-day event showcased a different chess variant each day: Basque Chess, Rapid

Chess960 Fischer random chess, also known as Chess960 (often read in this context as 'chess nine-sixty' instead of 'chess nine hundred sixty'), is a variation of the game of chess invented by the former world chess champion Bobby Fischer. Fischer annou ...

, Rapid Chess and Blitz Chess with each game played counting for 1 point in determining the winner. Hou easily won the match: 0–2 in Basque, 3.5–0.5 in Chess960, 3–1 in Rapid Chess, and 4.5–3.5 in Blitz with a total score of 11–7. As part of the joint Russian-Chinese Match of Friendship chess festival held from December 13 to 15 held in Shanghai, China, Hou participated in an exhibition match with the GM

Evgeniy Najer Evgeniy Yuryevich Najer (russian: Евгений Юревич Наер, translit=Evgeniy Yuryevich Nayer; born 22 June 1977) is a Russian chess grandmaster and the European champion of 2015. He is also one of the coaches of the Russian women's n ...

the 2015 European Champion. Playing a series of rapid and blitz games, she won quite convincingly with a 9.5 to 4.5 score. In the last chess event of the year, the 2nd edition of the 2015 Qatar Masters Open held from December 19 to the 30th in Doha, Qatar, Hou was the 22nd highest rated player in the tournament but finished in 38th place with a 5.5/9 score (+3 −1 =5, TPR 2591). The result was still good enough to win the top women's prize by a full point.

2016

For the third time, Hou competed in the top group of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament held from January 15 to 31. This year she was seeded 13th out of 14 participants in this Category 20 event. She started strongly, going +1 in her first six games before faltering with four losses in the following five games. She placed 12th with a 5/13 score(+1 −4 = 8, TPR 2672). In early February, Hou played and won in a four-game match against Cristobal Henriquez Villagra in

Punta Arenas Punta Arenas (; historically Sandy Point in English) is the capital city of Chile's southernmost region, Magallanes and Antarctica Chilena. The city was officially renamed as Magallanes in 1927, but in 1938 it was changed back to "Punta Are ...

. Billed as a Bicontinental Chess Match, it was scheduled to be played in two locations, but due to inclement weather, they were unable to play in

Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean, it contains the geographic South Pole. Antarctica is the fifth-largest contine ...

. She won the match with a 2.5–1.5 score(+2 −1 =1, TPR 2584). Qualifying for the

Women's World Chess Championship 2016 The Women's World Chess Championship 2016 was a chess match played between Mariya Muzychuk, the defending champion, and the challenger Hou Yifan to determine the FIDE Women's World Champion. The scheduled 10-game match was held from 1 to 14 March ...

, in March, as the winner of the

, she reclaimed the World Championship title from

Lviv Lviv ( uk, Львів) is the largest city in western Ukraine, and the seventh-largest in Ukraine, with a population of . It serves as the administrative centre of Lviv Oblast and Lviv Raion, and is one of the main cultural centres of Ukraine ...

, Ukraine with a 6–3 score (+3 =6, TPR 2685). From March 23–26 Hou played in a four player 3 round classical/3 round rapid robin tournament to determine the qualifier for the 4th edition of

Norway Chess Norway Chess is an annual closed chess tournament, typically taking place in the May to June time period every year. The first edition took place in the Stavanger area, Norway, from 7 May to 18 May 2013. The 2013 tournament had ten participants, in ...

. She finished in 3rd place with a 1/3 score (−1 =2, TPR 2531) in the classical portion and 2/1 score (+2 −1, TPR 2716) in the rapid portion. In May, Hou dropped out of the current Women's World Championship cycle, effectively relinquishing the crown. She explained her reasons in a Chessbase interview, mainly objecting to the format wherein the Women's World Champion is decided alternately by a knockout tournament and then a match. She also expressed her willingness to participate in the cycle if the format were amended to mirror that of the

World Chess Championship The World Chess Championship is played to determine the world champion in chess. The current world champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway, who has held the title since 2013. The first event recognized as a world championship was the 1886 match ...

. She played in the Vugar Gashimov Memorial, a category 20 tournament held in, Shamkir Azerbaijan, from May 26 to June 4. She was the ninth seed out of ten participants and finished in last place with a 2.5/10 score (−4 = 5, TPR 2578) Hou played in the Eurasian Blitz Cup from June 17–20 in Almaty, Kazakhstan. Seeded 17th on the strength of her 2704 blitz rating, she came in 29th place with a 12.5/22 score (+10 −7 = 5, TPR 2650). Among the female competitors, while having a superior performance rating, she came in second to

Harika Dronavalli Harika Dronavalli (born 12 January 1991) is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM). She has won three bronze medals in the Women's World Chess Championship, in 2012, 2015 and 2017. Dronavalli was honored with the ...

on tiebreaks.

2017

At the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival, Hou finished with a score of 6/10 (the tournament was won by

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraBorya Ider, in which she made an early positional sacrifice of queen for two minor pieces, was described as "truly astonishing" by organizer and chess journalist John Saunders. In the final round, she appeared to throw her game against Indian Grandmaster Lalith Babu, playing a ridiculous opening and resigning after 5 moves. She later explained that she was upset about being paired against other female players in 7 of her 9 previous games of a

Swiss Swiss may refer to: * the adjectival form of Switzerland * Swiss people Places * Swiss, Missouri * Swiss, North Carolina *Swiss, West Virginia * Swiss, Wisconsin Other uses *Swiss-system tournament, in various games and sports *Swiss Internation ...

system tournament, however tournament organizer Brian Callaghan said the pairings were simply the result of a computer program. Hou Yifan was one of 24 players selected to play in the

FIDE Grand Prix 2017 The FIDE Grand Prix 2017 was a series of four chess tournaments that formed part of the qualification cycle for the World Chess Championship 2018. The top two finishers, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Alexander Grischuk, qualified to the 2018 Candi ...

, a qualification stage for the

World Chess Championship 2018 The World Chess Championship 2018 was a match between the reigning world champion since 2013, Magnus Carlsen, and the challenger Fabiano Caruana to determine the World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion. The 12-game match, organised by F ...

. She reached position 17 in the final standings, and thus was not able to qualify for the Championship. She declined to defend her title at the

Women's World Chess Championship 2017 The Women's World Chess Championship 2017 was a 64-player knock-out tournament, to decide the women's world chess champion. The final was won by Tan Zhongyi over Anna Muzychuk in the rapid tie-breaks. At the FIDE General Assembly during the 42nd ...

, and as a result forfeited her title. In April she participated at the Grenke Classic at

Baden-Baden Baden-Baden () is a spa town in the states of Germany, state of Baden-Württemberg, south-western Germany, at the north-western border of the Black Forest mountain range on the small river Oos (river), Oos, ten kilometres (six miles) east of the ...

. She finished 5th out of eight players, beating

Fabiano Caruana Fabiano Luigi Caruana (born July 30, 1992) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, Caruana became a grandmaster at the age of 14 years, 11 months, and 20 days—the youngest grandmaster in the history of both Italy and the United Sta ...

and drawing against

after having come close to winning. In June she re-entered the top 100 players, as world no. 85. In August, she was clear first at the Category 16 50th Biel Chess Festival with 6.5/9 points (+5 −1 =3, TPR 2810). In September she competed in the Chess World Cup 2017, where she went out in a second round tiebreak to Levon Aronian, the eventual winner.

2018

In January she competed in the Tata Steel tournament in

as the only woman in the field of 14 players, placing last with a score of 2.5/13 (+0−8=5). From 31 March to 9 April, she participated in the 5th Grenke Chess Classic. She finished equal 8th–9th out of ten with a score of 3½/9 (+0 –2 =7).

2019

In December, she won the 2019 Belt and Road World Chess Woman Summit with 5/7 points.

Rating

Rated 2686 in the March 2015

rating list, Hou was the world no. 59 player and world no. 1 woman player (overtaking the recently retired

's rating for the first time). On 1 July 2006, she was the youngest ever player to enter the Top 50 Women (Number 8) and Top 20 Girls (Number 2) FIDE lists at age of 12 (rated 2488), since FIDE began releasing these lists in 2000. Between the April 2006 and July 2006 FIDE rating lists, she gained an impressive 190 rating points from a rating of 2298 to a rating of 2488, which made her the eighth highest rated female player, and the second highest rated girl, in the world. Four-time winner of the honorary Caissa Cup as the best female player of the year (2010, 2011, 2013, 2014). Chess Award of Caissa, designed and executed by artisans of the Lobortas Classic Jewelry House, was solemnly presented at the 40th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul on September 2, 2012, during a meeting of the Commission for Women's Chess with the participation of Susan Polgar chairing the commission.

Openings

Hou Yifan primarily plays 1.e4 as

White White is the lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully reflect and scatter all the visible wavelengths of light. White o ...

. As Black, she usually plays the

Sicilian Defence The Sicilian Defence is a chess opening that begins with the following moves: :1. b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4, e4 b:Chess Opening Theory/1. e4/1...c5, c5 The Sicilian is the most popular and best-scoring response to White's first move 1.e4. Ope ...

(including the Najdorf and Dragon variations) as well as the

French Defence The French Defence is a chess opening characterised by the moves: :1. e4 e6 This is most commonly followed by 2.d4 d5, with Black intending ...c5 soon after, attacking White's and gaining on the . The French has a reputation for solidity ...

against 1.e4, while against 1.d4 she plays the Bogo-Indian_and_Queen's_Indian.html" ;"title="Bogo-Indian_Defence.html" ;"title="Nimzo-Indian, Bogo-Indian Defence">Bogo-Indian and Queen's Indian">Bogo-Indian_Defence.html" ;"title="Nimzo-Indian, Bogo-Indian Defence">Bogo-Indian and Queen's Indian defences.

Notable games

On 25 January 2008, Hou as Black beat GM Gabriel Sargissian (2676) of Armenia, longtime second of Levon Aronian, in the Corus chess tournament, Corus (Group B) tournament,

, Netherlands: :1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6

Queen's Indian Defense The Queen's Indian Defense (QID) is a chess opening defined by the moves: :1. d4 Nf6 :2. c4 e6 :3. Nf3 b6 The opening is a solid defense to the Queen's Pawn Game. 3...b6 increases Black's control over the central light squares e4 and d5 ...

: Fianchetto. Nimzowitsch Variation ( E15) 5. Qc2 Bb4+ 6. Bd2 Be7 7. e4 d5 8. cxd5 Bxf1 9. Kxf1 exd5 10. e5 Ne4 11. Nc3 Nxd2+ A . 12. Nxd2 Qd7 13. Kg2 Nc6 14. Qa4 0-0 15. Rac1 f6 16.Nd1 Nxe5 17.Qxd7 Nxd7 18.Rxc7 Bb4 19.Nf3 ; better was 15...Rfd8. 16. f4 fxe5 17. dxe5 Bb4 18. Rhf1 Rac8 19. Ne2 Nxe5 20. Qxb4 Nd3 21. Qb3 Nxc1 22. Nxc1 Rce8 23. Nf3 Qf5 24. Rf2 c5 25. Qd3 Qe4 26. Rd2 d4 27. Qxe4 Rxe4 28. Nd3 Re6 29. h4 Rc8 30. a4 a6 31. Nfe5 b5 32. a5 g6 33. Rc2 c4 34. Nb4 Rf8 35. b3 d3 36. Rd2 Rc8 37. Rd1 Rd6 38. Kf3 d2 39. bxc4 bxc4 40. Nc2 c3 41. Ke2 Rd5 42. Ng4 Rxa5 43. Nge3 Rd8 44. Rb1 Ra2 45. Kd1 Rb2 46. Ra1 Rdb8 47. Rxa6 Rb1+ 48. Ke2 Rc1 49. Rc6 Re8 If 50.Kd3, then ...Rxc2 follows. If 50.Rxc3, then ...d1=Q+.

Views

Male-female skill gap at the top-level

Yifan claimed that there are many reasons for the lack of female contenders at the chess top-level. She says there is a physical aspect to long chess games that might advantage men, and that men generally work harder at chess than women growing up. She uses Chinese girls as an example and points out that most prefer a balanced life, prioritizing things such as university and family life at the cost of working on chess. But she claims there also are external factors: girls playing chess growing up are only encouraged to compete for the girl's title, which might lower their motivation.

References

External links

* * * , includes notable games *
Profile at Starz International Sports
* Short biographies at Corus Chess official website: ** **
Profile and interview
ChessBase.com, 5 February 2009 *

Hou Yifan interview with Dominic Lawson over a game
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hou, Yifan 1994 births Asian Games gold medalists for China Asian Games medalists in chess Chess grandmasters Female chess grandmasters Chess players at the 2010 Asian Games Chess players from Jiangsu Chess woman grandmasters Chinese female chess players Living people Medalists at the 2010 Asian Games Peking University alumni High School Affiliated to Renmin University of China alumni People from Taizhou, Jiangsu Women's world chess champions World Youth Chess Champions BBC 100 Women Chinese Rhodes Scholars Shenzhen University faculty