ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
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Hou Yifan was born on February 27, 1994, in Xinghua, China. Her name, which is written 侯逸凡 in Chinese characters and Hóu Yìfán in Pinyin, is pronounced "Ho-ee? Fan". Chinese is a tonal language with pitch being used to distinguish different meanings. So you have to speak the first two syllables with a rising ton, as if you were asking a question. Also: friends call her Yifan, which is the equivalent of our first names.
In November 2008 Hou became the youngest ever female in history to qualify for the title of grandmaster. She did this at the age of 14 years 6 months 2 days, breaking the previous records set by Judit Polgar (15y 4m 28d) and Koneru Humpy (15y 1m 27d). We have added Hou to our list of chess prodigies, which now looks like this:
No. |
Player | Nat. |
years |
months |
days |
year |
1 |
Sergey Karjakin | UKR
| 12
| 7
| 0
| 2002
|
2 |
Parimarjan Negi | |||||
3 |
Magnus Carlsen | NOR
| 13
| 3
| 27
| 2004
|
4 |
Bu Xiangzhi | CHN |
13 |
10 |
13 |
1999 |
5 |
Teimour Radjabov | AZE |
14 |
0 |
14 |
2001 |
6 |
Ruslan Ponomaryov | UKR |
14 |
0 |
17 |
1997 |
7 |
Wesley So | PHI |
14 |
1 |
28 |
2007 |
8 |
Etienne Bacrot | FRA |
14 |
2 |
0 |
1997 |
9 |
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave | FRA |
14 |
4 |
0 |
2005 |
10 |
Peter Leko | HUN |
14 |
4 |
22 |
1994 |
11 |
Hou Yifan | CHN
| 14
| 6
| 2
| 2008
|
12 |
Yuri Kuzubov | UKR
| 14
| 7
| 12
| 2004
|
13 |
Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son | VIE |
14 |
10 |
0 |
2004 |
14 |
Fabiano Caruana | ITA |
14 |
11 |
20 |
2007 |
15 |
Koneru Humpy | IND |
15 |
1 |
27 |
2002 |
16 |
Hikaru Nakamura | USA |
15 |
2 |
19 |
2003 |
17 |
Pentala Harikrishna | IND |
15 |
3 |
5 |
2001 |
18 |
Judit Polgar | HUN |
15 |
4 |
28 |
1991 |
19 |
Alejandro Ramirez | CRI |
15 |
5 |
14 |
2003 |
20 |
Bobby Fischer | USA |
15 |
6 |
1 |
1958 |
We must once again draw your attention to one of our first encounters with Hou Yifan. This was at the Three Arrows Cup in 2005, when the eleven-year-old untitled player, rated 2158, came equal 4-5th and drew the attention of our reporter.
At the time Ali Nihat Yazici, President of the Turkish Chess Federation, who was sending us pictures and stories from Jinan, wrote:
"As a journalist, president and chess person I must draw your attention to this young lady, Miss Hou Yifan. Take a good look at her – we are introducing you to a future women's world champion. Hou is just eleven years old, and her official rating is 2158. But her performance in Jinan was 2400. She is a great talent and I predict that she may soon become the youngest GM in the world. Not WGM, but GM!
Hou Yifan at the World Ladies in Jinan, April 2005
Our precognitive friend Ali Nihat got it right. Yifan is now the youngest GM in the world, and the youngest female GM in history. You can see her progress in the following chart:
Here are some pictures of the talented young lady:
Yifan portrayed by Fred Lucas at the Wijk
aan Zee tournament in January this
year, where she had a performance of 2600 in the B Group
Exhausted: during the Atatürk
Women's Tournament in Istanbul in March 2008...
... and in the final round. Hou won the tournament, a full point ahead of
GM Pia Cramling
Yifan at the Women's World Championship in Nalchik, September 2008,
where she lost narrowly in the final to Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk
Nat. | Name | Rtng | G1 |
G2 |
G3 |
G4 |
Tot. |
RUS | Kosteniuk, Alexandra | 2510 | 1 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
2.5 |
CHN | Hou, Yifan | 2557 | 0 |
½ |
½ |
½ |
1.5 |
The start of the final game in the Women's World Championship in Nalchik
Hou Yifan in Wijk
aan Zee 2007, where she came fifth in the C Group
At the Chess
Olympiad in Turin in 2006
Incidentally in the latest FIDE awards list tells us that two other young ladies have received the full GM title as well: Monika Socko of Poland und Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia. There are currently nineteen female players who hold the GM title (source: Wikipedia):
Player | Country | born |
award |
age |
World Champion | rating |
Nona Gaprindashvili | Georgia | 1941-05-03 | 1978 |
37 |
1962–1978 | -- |
Maia Chiburdanidze | Georgia | 1961-01-17 | 1984 |
23 |
1978–1991 | 2550 |
Susan Polgar | Hungary USA | 1969-04-19 | 1991 |
21 |
1996–1999 | 2577 |
Judit Polgár | Hungary | 1976-07-23 | 1991 |
15 |
2735 | |
Xie Jun | China | 1970-10-30 | 1991 |
31 |
1991–96,1999–2001 | 2574 |
Pia Cramling | Sweden | 1963-04-23 | 1992 |
29 |
2550 | |
Zhu Chen | China Qatar | 1976-03-16 | 2001 |
25 |
2001–2004 | 2548 |
Koneru Humpy | India | 1987-03-31 | 2002 |
15 |
2622 | |
Antoaneta Stefanova | Bulgaria | 1979-04-19 | 2003 |
25 |
2004–2006 | 2560 |
Alexandra Kosteniuk | Russia | 1984-03-23 | 2004 |
20 |
2008–current | 2540 |
Peng Zhaoqin | Netherlands | 1968-05-08 | 2004 |
36 |
2472 | |
Hoang Thanh Trang | Hungary | 1980-04-25 | 2007 |
27 |
2493 | |
Kateryna Lahno | Ukraine | 1989-12-27 | 2007 |
17 |
2509 | |
Xu Yuhua | China | 1976-10-29 | 2007 |
30 |
2006–2008 | 2517 |
Marie Sebag | France | 1986-10-15 | 2008 |
21 |
2533 | |
Zhao Xue | China | 1985-04-06 | 2008 |
23 |
2530 | |
Hou Yifan | China | 1994-02-27 | 2008 |
14 |
2578 | |
Nana Dzagnidze | Georgia | 1987-01-01 | 2008 |
21 |
2503 | |
Monika Socko | Poland | 1978-03-24 | 2008 |
30 |
2505 |
Nona Gaprindashvili, the first female grandmaster, got her title for being a long-standing women's world champion. The first female to earn the title with full GM norms was Zsuzsa (Susan) Polgar in 1991.