ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024
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In 2006, at the age of 12, Hou Yifan participated in her first Women’s World Championship, reaching round 3 of the 64-player knockout tournament. Four years later, she would become the youngest-ever women’s world champion, beating her compatriot Ruan Lufei in the final in Hatay, Turkey.
These are only two instances of Hou breaking records. Just to name a few similar achievements, she is also the youngest-ever female player to get a GM title, the youngest-ever Chinese women’s champion and one of only three female players to have joined the top 100 of the world ranking — legends Maia Chiburdanidze and Judit Polgar are the other two.
But the extremely talented, unassuming Chinese star always fought to develop her talent not only on the chessboard but also elsewhere. As she told ESPN back in 2017:
I want my life to be rich and colorful, not narrow. I knew [enrolling to university] would impact my chess, but that’s how I wanted to live my life.
Hou studied International Relations at the prestigious Peking University, and later showed her talent in academia by getting a Rhodes Scholarship at the Blavatnik School of Government in Oxford University.
In the meantime, she got great results at some top-notch chess tournaments, getting second places at the strong Gibraltar Open and obtaining a historic win at the 50th edition of the Biel Tournament in 2017 — she finished ahead of three 2700+ players: Bacrot, Harikrishna and Navara.
A few days ago, on July 10, she broke yet another record, by becoming the youngest full professor in the history of the University of Shenzhen.
The heads of the University intend to strengthen the institution’s sports program, and consider that “chess can play an active role in an innovative city”. Having the strongest woman player in the world leading the program certainly bodes good news for the future!
The city, located on the east bank of the Pearl River estuary on the central coast of southern Guangdong province, has become known to chess players thanks to its Masters Tournament, won by international stars Ding Liren, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri in its first three editions.
True to her nature, Hou Yifan expressed her desire to not only focus on chess improvement but also on encouraging students to get a more comprehensive set of skills.
The Accelerated Dragon - a sharp weapon against 1.e4
After 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 g6! leads to the so-called "Accelerated Dragon Defense". On this DVD the Russian grandmaster and top women player Nadezhda Kosintseva reveals the secrets of her favourite opening.
Liu Shilan, the Dean of the Shenzhen University, in fact won the Chinese Women’s Chess Championship no fewer than seven times!
