I’ve spoken to a number of people who are convinced that Hou would have risen higher if she’d made the game her singular focus. “I believe she could have been top twenty,” Irina Bulmaga told me. Bulmaga admitted that a part of her was disappointed that Hou hadn’t done so. “The more you see, the more you believe maybe you could achieve it, too,” she said. Hou, though, speaks without regrets. Enkhtuul Altan-Ulzii, a Woman Grandmaster from Mongolia who is one of Hou’s closest friends, told me, “She is not actually results oriented. She plays for fun and enjoyment.” A highlight for Hou in 2008 came when she won the Chinese Women’s Championship a second consecutive time. Once again she finished undefeated with seven wins and four draws. This time she earned a performance rating of 2599. Months later she made history by earning her third and final GM norm. Hou Yifan at the 2008 World Junior Chess Championship, where she gained a GM norm. Photo: A. Kontokanis, CC 2.0. This meant that Hou Yifan reached her third grandmaster norm on 12 September 2008 at the age of 14 years, 6 months, 16 days, making her one of the youngest grandmasters in history, as well as the youngest female. Hou was invited to participate in the 2013 Tata Steel Chess Tournament Grandmaster A group in Wijk aan Zee 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. She competed in the 2013 China Chess Individual Tournament Group A in Xinghua, China from 16 to 27 April. 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). [137]

Atatürk Istanbul: Hou Yifan wins Atatürk Masters". Chessbase.com. 21 March 2008 . Retrieved 3 December 2011. Friedel, Frederic (20 May 2016). "Why Hou Yifan has dropped out of the cycle". Chess News. ChessBase. Hou reached the third round (the last 16) of the Women's World Chess Championship in March 2006. [49] Despite being rated 2269 and seeded 56th out of 64 players, [50] she defeated IM Nadezhda Kosintseva (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. [51] She was beaten 0–2 by IM Nino Khurtsidze (2430) of Georgia in the third round to finish with a performance rating of 2504. [52] [53] Wojciech Bartelski. "6th World Team Chess Championship". Olimpbase.org . Retrieved 3 December 2011. Hou captured individual and team gold (Chinese women’s) in the 16th Asian Games, which took place in November 2010. Her 8.5/9 points earned her a remarkable performance rating of 2798. As notable as that tournament was, what she did the next month was even more impressive.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'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 Zhao Xue and Shen Yang, respectively. [ citation needed] She declined to defend her title at the Women's World Chess Championship 2017, and as a result forfeited her title. [168]

Will the world's highest-rated woman return to chess full-time in the future? The answer wasn't a "yes," but it wasn't a "no" either! During 13 to 21 September, 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. [147]In 10–20 August, she played in the China–Russia Summit Match in Ergun, Inner Mongolia. 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). [60] In December, she won the 2019 Belt and Road World Chess Woman Summit with 5/7 points. [172] Rating [ edit ] tradimo.com – learn to trade (22 August 2016), Interview with Hou Yifan, Women's Chess World Champion | tradimo , retrieved 23 August 2016

Hou Yifan wins the First Women Master in Wuxi". ChessBase.com. 27 April 2011 . Retrieved 27 April 2011. 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 10 to 27 September, the Women's World Chess Championship 2013 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. [139] 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). [120]

Areas of expertise

Oxford, led by Hou Yifran, wins the 137th Varsity chess match". St Hilda's College Oxford. 14 March 2019 . Retrieved 12 February 2020. On 1 January 2004, she received her first International FIDE rating of 2168, which automatically qualified her for the title of Woman FIDE Master. In April, she competed at the Chinese Team Chess Championship (Women's) in Jinan, Shandong. [28] She scored 1½/7 (TPR 2096) having faced an average opposition rating (R c) of 2316. [29] Thomas, Louisa (26 July 2021). "Hou Yifan and the Wait for Chess's First Woman World Champion". New Yorker . Retrieved 3 March 2023. In June, she took part in a tournament in India, the AAI International Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2011. [125] 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, Russia. [126] She then went on to win the second Grand Prix stage in Shenzhen in September 2011. [127] GM Hou Yifan wins Third Kuala Lumpur Open". ChessBase.com. 12 April 2010 . Retrieved 3 December 2011.