YIFAN HOU (born Feb-27-1994, 31 years old) China PRONUNCIATION: [what is this?] Grandmaster; Chinese Women's champion (2007 & 2008); 13th Women's World Champion (2010-12 & 2013-2015). Preamble Hou Yifan (侯逸凡) was born in Xinghua City, Jiangsu, China and started playing chess at age 6. She is the youngest female in the history of chess to acquire the GM title, and was the youngest GM in the world when she acquired the title. At 14, she was the youngest ever finalist in a Women's World Championship contest. Winning the Women's World Championship title in 2010 at the age of 16 made her the youngest Women's World Champion ever, beating the mark long held by the legendary Maia Chiburdanidze who won the title in 1978 at the age of 17. In 2011, she successfully defended her title by winning the best-of-ten Hou - Koneru Women's World Championship (2011) by 5.5-2.5 (+3 =5 -0), also making her the youngest Women's World Champion to defend her title, and the youngest to do so successfully. Championships <Age - Girls> In 2003 she won the U10 Girls division of the World Youth Championships in Halkidiki, Greece. She scored 9/12 in the World Junior Championship (Girls) (2006) and secured second place on countback behind Shen Yang. <Age - open> In 2004, she contested the Open U10 World Championship in Heraklio, Crete, placing third. She came third in the World Junior Championship (2008) behind Abhijeet Gupta and Parimarjan Negi. <National - Women> In June 2007 Hou broke through to win the Women's Chinese National Chess Championship in Chongqing city, a title she successfully defended in Beijing the following May. <National - open> She competed in the "open" Chinese Championship (2011), scoring 6/11 (+2 -1 =8). She scored 5/11 at the Chinese Chess Championships (2012). <Continental - open> In 2009, Yifan came equal third in the 8th Asian Continental Chess Championship (2009) (open) (ACCC) with 7/11, half a point behind GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly and GM Zhou Weiqi, qualifying her for the World Cup 2009. She scored 4.5/9 at the 10th Asian Individual Championships (2011). <Grand Prix> She came second with 7.5/11 in the Women's Grand Prix in Nalchik in 2010 after Tatiana Kosintseva and won the FIDE Women Grand Prix (2010) in Ulan Bator, Mongolia with 8/11 and a 2649 performance rating. Soon after the World Cup 2011 she won the Shenzhen Women's Grand Prix (2011) with a score of 8/11 (+5 =6). <World - Women> At the age of 12, she contested the FIDE Women's World Championship (2006) in Ekaterinburg, Russia, defeating Nadezhda Kosintseva and Natalia Zhukova in the first two rounds before falling to Nino Khurtsidze in the third round. Yifan capped 2010 and her career so far by becoming the Women's World Champion in December, defeating Ruan Lufei in the tiebreaker 3-1 after drawing the classical games 2-2. Her win earned her China Central Television's 2010 award for Sportsperson of the Year involved in a sport that is not included in the Olympic category* and her title win also qualified her for participation in the World Cup 2011. Hou relinquished her world title a second time in April 2015 when she played in the Hawaiian Masters' Tournament (which she won) instead of the FIDE Women's World Chess Championship (2015) which was scheduled for the same time. As the winner of the Women's Grand Prix 2013-14, she is qualified to contest the Women's world crown later in 2015 against Mariya Muzychuk, who won the knockout event. <World - open> Having qualified via the ACCC 2009 for the World Cup (2009), she bowed out in the first round after losing to Arkadij Naiditsch. She qualified for the World Cup (2011) by dint of her being the Women's World Champion, but lost to Sergei Movsesian in the first round after missing a winning combination in the second game. In September 2015 she was a Presidential Nominee for the World Cup (2015) where she defeated Rafael Duailibe Leitao in the first round but lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov in the rapid game tiebreaker of the second round to be eliminated from the event. Team Events <Olympiads> Yifan played in the 37th Chess Olympiad: Women (2006) on the Reserve Board (Board 4), winning the silver medal with 11/13 and a performance rating of 2596. She lead her country to a silver medal in the Chess Olympiad (Women) (2010) she also won bronze for her efforts on the top board where she scored 8/11 (+5 -0 =6). <Women's World Team Championship> Also in 2007, she won a team gold and individual gold and silver medals on board 2 at the 2007 Women's World Team Championships. In 2009, she won team gold and individual bronze playing top board for China in that year's edition of the Women's World Team Championships. Standard Tournaments <2005-2010> Hou came fifth in the 3 Arrows Cup in 2005 in Jinan, recording a performance rating of nearly 2400. In 2008 she also won the Isbank Ataturk Women Masters (2008) outright by a clear point ahead of Pia Cramling. In April 2010, after relatively modest results in the Moscow Open (2010) and Aeroflot Open (2010) in February, she won the 3rd Kuala Lumpur Open with 7.5/9. <2011-2015> She won the 1st Women Master Tournament 2011 at Wuxi with 7/9, and played in the 2nd Hainan Danzhou GM tournament where she scored 2 points from 9 rounds. Her poor form continued in the Airports Authority of India (2011) (3/10) and the 1st Hangzhou Women's GM Tournament (2011). Yifan staged a partial recovery by winning the FIDE Women's Grand Prix (2011) with 8/11, coasting to a victory by a clear point ahead of Kateryna Lahno (to whom she lost in their individual encounter) after leading by 2 points midway through the event. In December 2011 at the inaugural World Mind Games which featured rapid, blitz and blindfold chess alongside Go, Bridge, Draughts, and Xiangqi, Hou won gold in the women's blitz and in the women's blindfold.** She finished a successful 2011 by winning team gold and two individual silver medals at the FIDE Women's World Team Championship (2011), and by overtaking Koneru as women's world number 2 after Judit Polgar. Hou started 2012 in dramatic style by taking equal first place at Tradewise Gibraltar (2012) with 8/10 (+7 -1 =2; TPR 2872), alongside Nigel Short (+6 =4; TPR 2838), however she came second on tiebreak when she lost the 2 game blitz playoff with Short by 1.5-0.5; her record against the 7 GMs she played, each of whom was rated over 2700 was 5/7, and included wins against Zoltan Almasi, Judit Polgar, Le Quang Liem and Alexey Shirov, draws against Michael Adams and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and a loss to Krishnan Sasikiran. A few weeks later, she came close to winning the Reykjavik Open (2012), but failed to find the right continuation to defeat the eventual winner, Fabiano Caruana, in the last round; she scored 7/9 (+5 =4; TPR 2677) to place =2nd, albeit 6th on count back. Her results have been more modest since then, including 6/9 at the 12th Bangkok Open (2012), costing her 16 Elo points, and then reached a nadir by placing last with 3/9 (-3 =6) at the 3rd Danzhou Tournament (2012). Neither her =3rd at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Kazan (2012) with 7/11 nor her outright win at the Women Grand Prix Jermuk (2012) enabled her to regain any of her lost rating points, but nevertheless she won the 2011-12 Women's Grand Prix which entitles her to challenge for the Women's World Championship in 2013 since she lost her title in the 2012 World Women's Championship knockout tournament. Yifan represented China on board 1 of the Chess Olympiad (Women) (2012), and helped her team to win team silver (missing gold to Russia on tiebreak), and also picking up individual gold on board 1. 2012 finished with Hou crashing out of the FIDE Knock-out Women's World Championship (2012), losing to GM Monika (Bobrowska) Socko in the rapid game tiebreaker in round 2. As the winner of the 2011-2012 Grand Prix series, Hou won the right to challenge the winner of the Knockout Tournament and 2012 Women's World Champion, GM Anna Ushenina, for the women's title in 2013. 2013 started with Hou's inaugural participation in an open super-tournament, starting as the 14th and lowest seed in the category 20 Tata Steel (2013). After a string of early losses, she recovered well (especially when playing Black) to defeat current and previous 2700 players Anish Giri, Pentala Harikrishna and Ivan Sokolov to score 5.5/13 (+3 =5 -5) and a near 2700 performance to finish 10th, ahead of Fabiano Caruana, Erwin L'Ami and Sokolov. Seeded 4th, she came in at =4th (8th on tiebreak) with a relatively rating-neutral 5.5/11 (+3 =5 -3) result at the Chinese Championships (2013). Her participation in the Women Grand Prix Geneva (2013) in May 2013 has been her least successful to date, scoring only 5/11 and placing =8th out of 12, and shedding 22 rating points for the June 2013 rating period. In June, and presumably part of her preparation for her World Championship match with Ushenina, Hou played the Navara vs Yifan Hou, 2013 and drew all 4 classical games; however, after drawing the blitz tiebreakers 1-1 she won the Armageddon blitz tiebreaker. In July 2013, she was selected as one of the President's nominees to play in the World Cup (2013), where she lost to Latvian #1 Alexey Shirov in the tiebreaker of the first round. However, in the following month in September 2013, she played and won the Ushenina - Hou Women's World Championship (2013) by 5.5-1.5 (+4 =3), to regain her title as 13th Women's World Champion. As a WFM, her rating topped 2500 in the January 2007 FIDE ratings before FIDE formally conferred her WGM title in late January 2007. Her results in the Aeroflot Open (2008) and the Isbank Ataturk Women Masters (2008) provided her with her first and second GM norms. She picked up her third GM norm in the World Junior Championship (2008) with a round to spare. Any lingering doubts about Yifan's GM norm from the Isbank Ataturk Masters were resolved when she acquired another GM norm upon defeating Koneru Humpy to reach the final of the Women's World Championship (2008) before losing the championship match against Alexandra Kosteniuk. In October 2012 she helped her team Cercle d'Echecs Monte-Carlo to win gold at the 28th European Club Cup (Women) (2012), and in the following year, she repeated that feat for the same team at the European Club Cup (Women) (2013). Hou easily won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Khanty - Mansiysk (2014) with 8.5/11, with a round to spare. She scored a crushing 9/11 at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Lopota (2014) and followed up with a strong 5/10 at the Biel (2014), placing =3rd a point behind the winner, and boosting her rating to the extent that she has reached the world's top 100, only the second woman to do so. In September 2014, she was =1st at the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Sharjah (2014). In December 2014, she played in the women's contingent of the chess section of the Mind Games events held in Beijing, placing 2nd with 5/7. She easily won the blitz portion of the event with 22.5/30, boosting her blitz rating to over 2700. In 2015, she participated in her first open invitational super-tournament, namely Tata Steel (2015), and scored a rating-neutral 5/13. Soon afterwards she scored 7.5/10 to place 3rd at the Tradewise Gibraltar (2015), a point behind the winner Hikaru Nakamura and half a point behind the runner-up David Howell against whom she missed a winning variation to draw their final round game. She won the Category 16 Biel (2017) tournament ahead of seven strong grandmasters, her best result to date. Rating and Ranking Hou's highest rating to date was 2686 in April 2015 when she reached her highest world ranking so far at #59. She is now the #1 woman in the world. On 1 January 2015, she exited the Girls list, ending a domination of that division as world's #1 Girl (i.e., female Junior U20) that started in January 2008, when she was 13, and lasted for 84 months. References and Sources * http://www.fide.com/component/conte... ** http://www.worldmindgames.net/en/ne... Article about Hou being the youngest female GM: http://www.chessbase.com/newsdetail...; Live rating: http://www.2700chess.com/women; Wikipedia article: Hou Yifan Last updated: 2017-08-05 02:52:25

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page 1 of 67; games 1-25 of 1,656  Game   Result Moves Year Event/Locale Opening 1. Y Hou vs Sahiti P Lakshmi   1-0 36 2003 Wch U10 Girls B92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation 2. Y Hou vs J Bluebaum   1-0 50 2003 Wch U10 Girls C18 French, Winawer 3. A Le Bail vs Y Hou 0-1 37 2003 Wch U10 Girls B56 Sicilian 4. Y Hou vs M Butuc   1-0 42 2003 Wch U10 Girls B13 Caro-Kann, Exchange 5. G Madanasri vs Y Hou   0-1 46 2003 Wch U10 Girls A36 English 6. Y Hou vs M Hejazipour   ½-½ 51 2003 Wch U10 Girls C96 Ruy Lopez, Closed 7. A Kashlinskaya vs Y Hou   0-1 39 2003 Wch U10 Girls A46 Queen's Pawn Game 8. N Szabo vs Y Hou   0-1 35 2003 Wch U10 Girls B56 Sicilian 9. Y Hou vs N Paikidze ½-½ 57 2003 Wch U10 Girls B92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation 10. Y Hou vs M Danelia 1-0 61 2003 Wch U10 Girls B52 Sicilian, Canal-Sokolsky (Rossolimo) Attack 11. Y Hou vs J Moussard 0-1 52 2004 Championnat du Monde -10 B76 Sicilian, Dragon, Yugoslav Attack 12. Y Hou vs B Khvan 1-0 41 2004 Wch U10 B71 Sicilian, Dragon, Levenfish Variation 13. Robson vs Y Hou 0-1 37 2004 Wch U10 B84 Sicilian, Scheveningen 14. A Galymzhanov vs Y Hou   0-1 56 2004 Wch U10 B50 Sicilian 15. M Bortnyk vs Y Hou   ½-½ 47 2004 Wch U10 B22 Sicilian, Alapin 16. Y Hou vs A A De la Rosa Lara   1-0 44 2004 Wch U10 B92 Sicilian, Najdorf, Opocensky Variation 17. Y Hou vs S Narayanan   1-0 47 2004 Wch U10 B84 Sicilian, Scheveningen 18. P Zhao vs Y Hou   ½-½ 64 2004 Wch U10 A46 Queen's Pawn Game 19. D Shahinyan vs Y Hou   0-1 29 2004 Wch U10 C02 French, Advance 20. D Khachykian vs Y Hou   0-1 57 2004 Wch U10 A30 English, Symmetrical 21. Y Hou vs C Heung   1-0 26 2004 Wch U10 B31 Sicilian, Rossolimo Variation 22. Y Hou vs S Zigangirova   1-0 45 2004 Asian-ch (Women) B42 Sicilian, Kan 23. M Ovezova vs Y Hou 0-1 133 2004 Asian-ch (Women) A45 Queen's Pawn Game 24. S Meenakshi vs Y Hou   1-0 37 2004 Asian-ch (Women) E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical 25. Y Hou vs S Vijayalakshmi   1-0 43 2004 Asian-ch (Women) C84 Ruy Lopez, Closed  page 1 of 67; games 1-25 of 1,656

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< Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 46 OF 67 ·  Later Kibitzing> Jul-15-13    JoergWalter: <notyetagm: <JoergWalter: <WannaBe: When did she shave her head??> The moment she wanted to impress Rustam.> Rustam Kasimdzhanov or Kamsky? :-)> Rustam, the boxer.Better no hair than a black eye. Jul-15-13    notyetagm: <JoergWalter: ... Rustam, the boxer. Better no hair than a black eye.> Ok. Jul-15-13    notyetagm: Yifan Hou Lots of Hou Yifan pics can be found at http://beijing2013.fide.com/en/main..., since the lovely has been showing up almost every day to watch the elite play in the FIDE Grand Prix Beijing (2013). Jul-15-13    notyetagm: HOU YIFAN PICS -> http://www.evernote.com/shard/s94/s... Sep-11-13    John Abraham: I know she is very talented and dedicated to her career but she looks extremely skinny. I hope she does not starve herself for the sake of chess or experience eccentric behavior patterns (possibly as a byproduct of malnourishment's effects on the brain), like Bobby Fischer probably did during the 1970s Sep-11-13    TheFocus: I don't think she's too skinny, but if needed, I could fatten her up. Sep-12-13    Abdel Irada: I think a new picture is needed. Yifan Hou is now 19; in the picture, she is 14. Five years is a pretty big difference at that age. (Actually, in this picture, she looks quite like my daughter. In fact, my wife's first remark on seeing it was, "She looks like a Chinese Sam.") ∞ Sep-12-13    TheFocus: Why did you name your daughter Sam? Surely something a little more feminine would do? Sep-12-13    SimonWebbsTiger: Samantha, eh? Yes a new Picture would be nice. She has gone from cute kid to pretty young lady now. The trademark hairclips are a thing of the past too. It's like the Carlsen page too. Cute lad to young man. How does one ask cg for a new pic, or any pic in case a player page has no pic? Sep-12-13    Abdel Irada: <TheFocus>: "Samantha" is quite feminine, and there's nothing wrong with the nickname "Sam." Actually, we put quite a bit of thought into choosing that name, starting months before she was born. A carelessly chosen name can haunt a child for life, and most particularly in school when it provides fodder for ridicule. So far, the name has worked out well for her. (And don't make her wiggle her nose.) ∞ Sep-12-13    TheFocus: <Abdel> I knew your daughter's name must have been Samantha. I was just fooling with you. No wiggling! Sep-18-13    Riverbeast: <I know she is very talented and dedicated to her career but she looks extremely skinny> I think she's a lovely young lady who seems to get better looking every year...I'm willing to bet that by her mid-twenties she's going to be a dead knockout She's also extremely thoughtful and intelligent, judging from her interviews...She's ladylike but competes like a lioness....I think she's a great ambassador for chess and I hope she stays WC for a long time Sep-18-13    JoergWalter: look at the picture from the opening ceremony - she is an attractive young lady. And she does not have sand between the ears. Sep-20-13    Kikoman: CONGRATULATIONS!! It's official! Yifan Hou the 2013 Women's World Chess Champion! by beating Anna Ushenina in Game 7 to clinched the series. Bravo! :D Sep-20-13    SugarDom: Rice power! Her name reads like that in chinese = rice good. Skinny? Thats normal where she comes from. Sep-20-13    Blunderdome: Congrats! Sep-20-13    Garech: Congratulations to the new Women's World Champion <Yifan Hou>! She is surely in a league of her own and, not only that, but a lovely girl, going by the interviews. -Garech Sep-20-13    ketchuplover: Hou for FIDE president!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sep-20-13    John Abraham: <ketchuplover> That's great but Hou will she get rid of Kirsan?? Sep-20-13    SoUnwiseTheKnight B4: Forget about FIDE, if she could just get someone here at CG to change this five year old picture... Sep-20-13    HeMateMe: <And she does not have sand between the ears.> You've met some girls with an unusual condition, or two? Sep-21-13    JoergWalter: <HeMateMe: <And she does not have sand between the ears.> You've met some girls with an unusual condition, or two?> Met plenty of those and sometimes it was a real advantage to have this unusual condition, actually. It was just cumbersome to clean the pillow afterwards. Sep-21-13    Strongest Force: Congrats on winning another world title, Hou. Sep-21-13    Thanh Phan: Article about her Late on Her Schoolwork? Well, She’s a Titan of Chess http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/21/w... By her own definition, 19-year-old Hou Yifan is an average student. She is a sophomore at Peking University, one of China’s top colleges, and says she constantly falls behind on her work. In a telephone interview in English an hour after the last game Friday, Ms. Hou said the match “wasn’t so easy, but it also was not so difficult.” Because of her schedule at the university and because she had recently played in another tournament, she said, she had had little time to prepare. Describing herself Friday as a full-time student, Ms. Hou said she did not receive any “special privileges” that allowed her to avoid fulfilling her course requirements. She also has to be in class most of the time, although she is allowed to leave for tournaments. Her travel schedule — she was recently in Norway and will soon go to Greece — is making her studies difficult, but she said she took her books with her. Ms. Hou is well known in China, so when she enrolled last year at the university, some of the other students were “a bit surprised,” she said. But she said her fellow students had gotten used to having her there. Asked why she was in the university at all, she said, “I am trying to really learn something” other than chess. Now that the championship is over, she is going back to school before she competes in the European Club Cup next month. Before leaving, she has to cram for exams. Sep-23-13    Abdel Irada: <SoUnwiseTheKnight B4: Forget about FIDE, if she could just get someone here at CG to change this five year old picture...> Perhaps to celebrate her championship, <chessgames.com> could find a more recent picture. This would seem more important for such a young player than for some of her seniors. The distance between 44 and 49 is intercellular; that between 14 and 19, interstellar. ∞ Jump to page #   (enter # from 1 to 67) search thread:    < Earlier Kibitzing  · PAGE 46 OF 67 ·  Later Kibitzing>

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