China’s dominance in women’s chess is sparked by male players, says women’s world No. 1 Hou Yifan

SINGAPORE – While Ding Liren became the first man from China to win the World Chess Championship in 2023, the Asian country has already been dominant in women’s chess on the global stage for many years.

Their players have emerged triumphant 15 times in the last 20 editions of the Women’s World Chess Championship, with four-time women’s world champion Hou Yifan crediting their male counterparts for sparking that run.

The 30-year-old, who is in Singapore as a guest commentator for the World Chess Championship at Sentosa, told The Straits Times on Dec 8: “There has been a very strong chess tradition (in China), especially in the years past.

“Exceptional male players have been helping their female counterparts during training to achieve greater results.”

This practice helped Xie Jun, the first Asian woman to become a grandmaster, make history by becoming China’s first women’s world champion in 1991 after defeating five-time champion Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia.

Those in her team included grandmaster Ye Jiangchuan, the second Chinese man to attain the grandmaster title and grandmaster Zhang Zhong, who went on to become the 2005 Asian champion.

While the male influence is not so strong now, with players getting more international exposure and competitions, women’s world No. 1 Hou said that the tradition had helped China “push out batch after batch of female players”.

Xie won three more women’s world titles (1993, 1999 and 2000), followed by Xu Yuhua (2006), Hou (2010, 2011, 2013, 2016) and Tan Zhongyi (2017), with Ju Wenjun holding the title since 2018.

Hou, Ju, Tan and Lei Tingjie also respectively occupy the top four of the women’s world rankings.

“I looked up to my seniors and now those born in the 2000s and 2010s look up to people like me,” said Hou, who was mobbed by chess fans in the fan zone at the Equarius Hotel in Resorts World Sentosa.

“And for a team to constantly improve, it is important to have good role models.”

While China has dominated the women’s event, a breakthrough came in 2023 when Ding clinched the men’s world championship – a title that has eluded China’s players, who have also won the men and women’s team championships besides the women’s world title.

Hou said: “His win gave a huge boost to chess in China. It was exciting for our young players to see a fellow countryman perform at the top level and win and that gave them an idol to follow.

“But I feel that outside of chess, the influence was not as big. Even after his win, not many knew that the world champion was Chinese.

“I think one of the reasons was that Ding did not give many interviews after his win and he might have missed an opportunity to use his win as a platform to raise China’s profile in chess.”

While some were surprised by Hou’s decision not to go into professional chess, as she enrolled in Peking University in 2012, she has no regrets over the decision as she could still pursue chess on top of her other commitments.

She went on to take a Rhodes Scholarship and received a Master’s in Public Policy from Oxford University.

She then became a lecturer at Shenzhen University’s School of Physical Education. While she was there, it introduced a chess module as part of its curriculum.

This allowed Shenzhen’s undergrads to rub shoulders with their counterparts from top universities such as Oxford, Cambridge and Harvard when they hosted a chess invitational.

Hou now works in Peking University as a lecturer, trying to help it increase its profile in chess.

She added: “I hope and am working to help grow chess (in Peking), our director of physical education is here in Singapore to watch this event and do the research required.”

Meanwhile, in the world championship match on Dec 8, challenger Gukesh Dommaraju made a significant step towards claiming the title after Ding made a blunder on move 28 and resigned a move later.

Gukesh now leads 6-5 with three games to go in the best-of-14 match. Game 12 is on Dec 9.