Ruan, 23, is a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business in Pittsburgh. She won all her previous matches in the championship in tie-breakers and was definitely not a pushover. But her 16-year-old opponent could no longer be denied the world crown. Hou was unrelenting in the rapid games held on Christmas Eve, scoring 3-1 (two wins, two draws) to break Maia Chiburdanidze’s record and become the youngest world chess champ in history.
In an interview after the match, which was held in Antakya, Turkey, Hou was critical of her play againstRuan, a lower-ranked opponent. “I think before the final, my play was very good,” Hou said. “The final match, I am not very satisfied with that.” Hou, according to the New York Times, is a solid player who takes few risks in her games, but also rarely makes critical mistakes.
Ruan, for her part, said she was happy to have performed well but exhausted after playing for nearly a month with one day’s rest. “I think there are three reasons why [Hou] beat me,” Ruan said. “Firstly, she is really a good player, and unlike me, she plays chess every day. Secondly, I played tie-break in every round, so I have played for 20 days with only one day rest. Finally, she has two coaches here, but I’m fighting alone. My coach is in China.”
Hou is the fourth women’s world champion from China, following Xie Jun, who dethroned Chiburdanidze in 1991 and held the crown until 1996 and then again from 1999 to 2001. Zhu Chen reigned from 2001 to 2004 while Xu Yuhua was the queen of the chess world from 2006 to 2008. Hou succeeded Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk who beat her in the semis two years ago when Hou was only 14. This year, Ruan eliminated Kosteniuk in round 3.
Hou receives training and financial support from the Chinese government and studies chess four to five hours a day — while attending high school. She told the NY Times that she sometimes falls behind in her work, but her teachers try to help her out. She plans to compete against men again, at a tournament this January in Gibraltar.
Born on Feb. 27, 1994, in Xinghua, Taizhou, Jiangsu, China, Hou, in 2008,became the youngest ever female in history (at the age of 14 years 6 months) to become a grandmaster.In June 2007, she became China’s youngest ever national women’s champion. In Sept. 2008, she became the youngest ever finalist for the women’s world championship. At the age of 12, she became the youngest ever player to participate at the women’s world championship (Yekaterinburg 2006), and at the Chess Olympiad (Torino 2006).
With Hou’s victory, Asians, for the first time in history, reign in the chess world with India’s Vishy Anand as king.
Game of the week. Let’s now take a look at the recently held 63rd Russian Championship which Canadian GM Kevin Spraggett described as “the strongest of recent generations, and certainly the toughest tournament played this year!” After 12 rounds, two of the brightest stars of their generation, Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi, finished in a tie for first place with a score of 7 points. Both are 20 years old, the same age as Magnus Carlsen. The “old” guards Alexander Grischuk and Peter Svidler were half a point behind. Karjakin could have won the title with a draw in the final round against Vladimir Malakhov, but the former Ukrainian prodigy lost and, as required by the rules, had to play a tie-breaking, two-game rapid match with Nepo who lost to Sergey in their individual game. The two drew their rapid games and had to go into the Armaggedon round: White would have six minutes and Black five. A draw is a win for Black. Nepomniachtchi won the coin toss, chose Black, drew the game and won the title!
Says Spraggett: “Move over Anand, Carlsen and Topalov!Nepomniachtchi has established himself — to my mind at least — as the number one chess player in the world today.Earlier this year Ian won the prestigious European Chess Championship, one of the most coveted titles in modern chess. Already one of the most gifted players of his generation, Nepomniachtchi will have to find a way to navigate the turbulent waters of FIDE politics in order to qualify for a chance to play for the world championship.I predict this will happen before Ian turns 25.”
Here is Nepo against the 34-year-old, five-time Russian champ in a game annotated by GM Sergey Shipov.
White: I. Nepomniachtchi (2720)
Black: P. Svidler (2722)
Scotch Game
Russian Championship, Moscow 2010
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 exd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nxc6 bxc6 This is all theory. 6.e5 Qe7 7.Qe2 Nd5 8.c4 Ba6 9.Nd2 g6 A move that’s apparently more correct than castling long. 10.Nf3 Qb4+ 11.Kd1 Nb6 After this move Black, no doubt, has no objective problems, but 11…Rb8 seems more accurate to me. The knight doesn’t look good on b6 and the a6 bishop also does nothing for Black’s position, although all of that, of course, is compensated for by the fact that the white king is stuck in the center. 12.b3 Bg7 13.Qd2 Qe7 14.Bb2 0–0 15.Kc2 c5 16.h4 A roughly equal position, though the possibility of h4-h5 acts on Black’s nerves. Here, it seems to me, you should play 16…Bb7, but Peter rushed a little, playing 16…d5. After that Black ends up in a worse endgame by force, although with correct play it should also end up as a draw. 17.exd6 Qxd6 18.Bxg7 Qxd2+ 19.Nxd2 Kxg7 20.Ne4 Nd7 21.Rd1 No doubt this wasn’t the best move, as Black didn’t have any real problems. Perhaps it was more accurate to play 21. h5. 21…Bb7 22.Nc3 There’s nothing after 22.Rxd7 Bxe4+ and then Rac8, and Black is very solid. 22…Nf6 23.f3 Rfe8 24.Bd3 White had another, slightly extravagant, possibility: 24.Na4 Re5 25.Nb2. Although here as well there’s nothing much: 25…Rae8 26.Nd3 Rf5, and it’s not clear where White’s advantage lies. Here Peter made a mistake. 24…a5? A very risky move. It has a point if Black manages to play a4 and create some counterplay, but otherwise the pawn becomes very weak. No doubt it would have been better to play 24…a6. 25.Rhe1 Bc6 26.Nb5 There’s nothing after 26.Ne4 Nxe4 27.Bxe4 Bxe4+ 28.Rxe4 Rxe4 29.fxe4 a4. 26…Rxe1 It was possible to consider the pawn sacrifice 26…a4. 27.Rxe1 Re8 28.Rxe8 Nxe8 29.Kb2 White sets off after the a5 pawn. Black could only survive based on counterplay. 29…Kh6 Perhaps the most forceful move, but it struck me as stronger to play 29…Kf6 with the idea of 30.Ka3 Nd6!? 31.Nxc7 Ke5 or 31.Ka4 Nb7, although here you have to look at 32.Be4. Perhaps that wins. 30.Be2 Ng7 Here Black had the interesting possibility 30…g5 31.hxg5+ Kxg5, and on 32.g3, 32…Ng7. 31.Ka3 Nf5 32.Ka4 Nxh4 33.Bf1 Nf5 There’s no particular point playing 33…Nxf3 34.gxf3 Bxf3. Black would need to advance two pawns. White, only one, and would clearly get there first. 34.Kxa5 Ne335.Nxc7 This was my idea. White sacrifices a piece. 35…Nxf1 36.Kb6 Bd7 This move loses immediately, while the consequences of 36…Bxf3 37.gxf3 Nd2, were something I couldn’t calculate to the end. In principle White should win here as well. In any case I can play 38. Kxc5 and put the king in the queening square. 37.Nd5 It was also possible to play 37.Kxc5 Ne3 38.a4 Nxg2 39.a5, but the move in the game is more forceful. 37…Kg7 (on 37…Nd2 there would follow 38.Kxc5) 38.a4 Bc8 (38…Kf8 39.Kc7) 39.Ne7 and Black resigned.
Puzzler.
White: Ka5, Nb5, Qc1, Bd3, pawn on d4
Black: Kd5, Ne5, pawns on a6 and f3
White to play and mate in three moves.
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