Saturday, January 29, 2011

A Family Heritage

World’s youngest ever women’s chess champion: “I’m just a normal teenager”

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), the 16-year-old chess prodigy, tells Peter Foster about training, travelling — and Oliver Twist.

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán). Photo: Katharina Hesse.

By Peter Foster, 北京 (Běijīng)
The Telegraph, January 29, 2011

There is nothing in the slightest bit ordinary about the achievements of 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), the Chinese chess prodigy who stunned the world just before Christmas by becoming the youngest ever women’s world chess champion at the age of just 16.
And yet, in appearance at least, it is a quintessentially ordinary Chinese teenager that shuffles in through the door at the Chinese Chess Association in 北京 (Běijīng), feet clad in Nike trainers, colourful scarf draped around her neck and a trendy purple beret holding back neatly bobbed hair.
As her mother looks on, Miss 侯 (Hóu) greets us with a bright but bashful smile and an easy-going “hiya” showing off the English language skills she’s picked up from her travels on the international chess circuit where she has been playing since the age of nine.
The story of Miss 侯 (Hóu)’s ascent to the upper echelons of world chess is both the chronicle of single-minded ambition and the everyday tale of a Chinese only child born to hardworking parents who would sacrifice everything for their child’s achievements.
Miss 侯 (Hóu) is both a genius – she became the youngest ever female chess grandmaster at the age of 14, earlier even than her hero Bobby Fischer — and a typical Chinese teenager who, like millions of nameless others, has worked almost unimaginably hard to make the most of her talents and opportunities.
But asked the sacrifices required for her daughter’s success, Miss 侯 (Hóu)’s mother, a 42-year-old nurse, chooses to stress the ordinariness of her daughter’s start in the provincial city of 兴化 (Xīnghuà), 200 miles north of 上海 Shànghǎi where her father was an official in the local justice department.
“We weren’t rich, but we weren’t poor either”, says 王茜 (Wáng Qiàn), “but you will have heard of China’s one-child policy, and like every other parent we were always thinking of ways of to improve our child’s development”.
“There was no dream or great plan, but one day when 逸凡 (Yìfán) was aged five a neighbour’s older child taught her how to play draughts (checkers). After only being taught once, 逸凡 (Yìfán) was winning easily against the older child, so we decided to pick on board-games to broaden her thinking”.
“We took her to a local games club but she always showed fascination in the Western pieces, the horses and the castles”, adds Mrs 王 (Wáng), “so we decided that chess was the one for her. But back then it was only about broadening her mind, and helping her education, we never dreamed we would come so far”.
By the age of seven, aided by the extra night shifts worked by her mother to free up time to guide her daughter, Miss 侯 (Hóu) had already outgrown her local chess club in 兴化 (Xīnghuà) and the family moved north to 山东省 (Shāndōng province) where a bigger club helped with coaching and living expenses.
At that age she attended a full day at school, came home to complete her homework and then at 5pm went to played chess, sometimes for five or six hours at a stretch, although Miss 侯 (Hóu) herself says it never seemed that long.
“I had such an interest in the game, a passion you could say, that meant I never got bored with it. I never tried to get out of playing. I think that is what has helped me succeed, I always wanted to keep playing, to keep learning more”, she says.
She dismisses the suggestion that her mother was a “Tigermom” in the mould of 蔡美儿 (Amy Chua), the Yale Law professor, whose unapologetic paeon to tough Chinese parenting, “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” caused such furore recently.
“My parents always gave me a choice about playing, but they said that if I wanted to play chess, then I should focus on it completely”, she says, adding that such attitudes and parental expectations are simply the norm for Chinese children. The difference is her success.
“I also have my other studies and I still have some time to do other things, like swimming, listening to music and reading books. I love to read. I recently just finished Oliver Twist for my English studies which is a great book”.
Miss 侯 (Hóu) says that her sheer love for the game protected her from the stress that, according to a joint Chinese-UK study published in the British Medical Association’s Archives of Disease in Childhood journal last year, afflicts about a third of primary school age children in China.
Success also helps makes sense of the sacrifices — she won $60,000 for winning the world championship and the 山东 (Shāndōng) government have verbally pledged to give her family a new house — although Miss 侯 (Hóu) says she doesn’t play for money, but to win.
“Half the money went to the federation, some more in tax and anyway I have it all to my parents. If I need something I just ask. After the world championship I asked for a new, faster computer as my old one was too slow for the best chess programs”.
It was in 山东 (Shāndōng), at the age of nine that Miss 侯 (Hóu) came to the attention of China’s national coach, the grandmaster 叶江川 (Yè Jiāngchuān), who recognised the talent of the young girl sitting opposite him when she played him and immediately picked up on almost all his weak moves.
“She had wisdom beyond her years”, he recalled with his protégé safely out of earshot, “she was precocious and an aggressive and fearless player. It was clear to me then that she was a very rare talent”.
Months later in 2004 Miss 侯 (Hóu) was enrolled under 叶 (Yè)’s tutelage at the Chinese Chess Association training program in 北京 (Běijīng) where she continues to build on a talent whose full potential is still many years from being reached.
At just 16, Miss 侯 (Hóu) is already the third-ranked woman player in the world (the world rankings, based on a points system, are separate from the world championship), with many predicting that she will continue to surpass the achievements of the great Hungarian woman player Judit Polgár. Ms Polgár, now 34 and the only woman among the world’s top 100 players according to FIDE, the international chess federation, became a grandmaster at 15 — a record broken by Miss Hou two years ago.
Miss 侯 (Hóu)’s rise, like the rise of China in so many other spheres of life, is not isolated. She is now one of the 10 Chinese players in the women’s top 100, a position unthinkable as recently as 2002 when not a single Chinese woman made the elite list.
But Miss 侯 (Hóu)’s sights are set higher than becoming the world’s best female player, with ambitions to take on the very best male players, emulating her hero Bobby Fischer whose games against the Soviet Union’s Boris Spassky she studies for her own training.
“Traditionally women have not beaten the best men”, adds coach 叶 (Yè), “but 侯 (Hóu) has the potential to rival the best men. Chess is a game based on military tactics and stategy, so it has always appealed more to men. You need to have a strong, aggressive desire, but she 侯 (Hóu) has that. Now only time and hard work will tell”.
Ask Miss 侯 (Hóu) herself and she seems slightly embarrassed by such talk, offering an answer of typically Chinese mix of self-deprecation and Confucian piety. “I think I will just keep working, follow my parents’ advice and keep playing my chess and let nature take its course. That is how I achieved my current status”.
But 刘伟 (Liú Wěi), the manager of the 山东 (Shāndōng) chess club where Miss 侯 (Hóu) cut her teeth is more forthcoming, believing Miss 侯 (Hóu) has a unique quality for a woman player that over the next decade could help her to achieve more than any woman chess player in history.
“When you meet her, she’s such a sweet-tempered, good-natured girl. She’s very quiet and straightforward, a bit like her father. But when she plays chess, then she plays with such aggression, she’s like another person. I think this drive and attacking spirit comes from her mother”.
As so often in China, in the end, it all comes back to the parents.

Friday, January 28, 2011

Scuola Magiara

Nel 2006, Hans-Walter Schmitt, poliedrico organizzatore della kermesse estiva di Magonza, istituì nientemeno che quattro Campionati del Mondo di scacchi960 (Fischerandom) di genere: assoluto, femminile, juniors e seniors. Per la terza età Schmitt candidò all’eterodossa corona due miti della storia degli scacchi ortodossi: Vlastimil Hort e Lajos Portisch, già pretendenti – in seconda età – al titolo classico. Ecco come li presentò Eric van Reem nella sua cronaca di allora:
Hort and Portisch both played against the inventor of Chess960, Bobby Fischer, when he was living in Budapest. Portisch even won a game against the ex-world champion: “I could never beat him in normal chess, but I could beat him in Chess960. “Bobby was not amused”, Portisch smiled.
Il titolo arrise a Hort, ma solo al tie-break lampo (il match ufficiale di otto partite semimeditate si impuntò sul 4 a 4). In compenso, notevole fu, per economia, eleganza e strategia, la prestazione di Portisch nella 7ª partita:

L. Portisch – V. Hort
7ª del match; Magonza, 16 agosto 2006
rbnqbknr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RBNQBKNR
Posizione 520

[ L. Portisch – V. Hort; 7ª del match; Magonza, 16 agosto 2006; rbnqbknr/pppppppp/8/8/8/8/PPPPPPPP/RBNQBKNR; Posizione 520 ]1. c4 c6 2. Cf3 d5 3. Dc2 Cf6 4. d3 Cb6 5. Aa5. Minaccia c4-c5. 5. ... Ac7 6. 0-0 0-0 7. a3 Tc8 8. Cb3 Cbd7 9. Ac3 b6 10. e4 dxe4 11. dxe4 e5 12. c5 De7 13. Ab4 b5. Se 13. ... a5 allora 14. cxb6 axb4 15. bxc7 bxa3 16. Txa3 Txc7 17. Ca5 con vantaggio per il Bianco. 14. a4 a6 15. axb5 axb5 16. Ca5 Axa5 17. Txa5 Ch5 18. g3 f6 19. Ta7 Af7 20. Td1 Ae6 21. Td6! Minaccia 22. Txe6 Dxe6 24. Aa2. 21. ... Tf7 22. Dd1. Minaccia ancora Td6xe6. 22. ... Td8 23. Ch4! La strategia di Portisch è cristallina. 23. Txc6? era invece confutata da 23. ... Cf8!!. 23. ... g6 24. Cf5! 24. Txc6? è sempre annichilita da 24. ... Cf8!!. 24. ... gxf5 25. Dxh5 f4 26. Txe6! Come tremtadue denti senza carie! 26. ... Dxe6 27. Aa2 De7 28. Dxf7+ Dxf7 29. Axf7+ Rxf7 30. Aa5 Re8 31. Axd8 Rxd8 32. Ta8+ Rc7 33. b4 h5 34. h4 Cb8 35. g4! il Nero abbandona. Una chiusa elegante: 35. ... hxg4 36. Txb8 Rxb8 37. h5 +-.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Stage Makeup

13th Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) getting her own makeup done before appearing on the stage of the CCTV Sports Personality of the Year 2010 Awarding Ceremony held in 北京 (Běijīng), China on Sunday, January 16, 2011. Photo: 李志岩 (Lǐ Zhìyán)/sohu.com.

Monday, January 10, 2011

A Queen’s Checkmate

China Rises, and Checkmates

Nicholas D. Kristof, The New York Times, January 8, 2011

If there’s a human face on Rising China, it belongs not to some Politburo chief, not to an Internet tycoon, but to a quiet, mild-mannered teenage girl named 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán).
Ms. 侯 (Hóu) (whose name is pronounced Ho Ee-fahn) is an astonishing phenomenon: at 16, she is the new women’s world chess champion, the youngest person, male or female, ever to win a world championship. And she reflects the way China — by investing heavily in education and human capital, particularly in young women — is increasingly having an outsize impact on every aspect of the world.
Napoleon is famously said to have declared, “When China wakes, it will shake the world”. That is becoming true even in spheres that China historically has had little connection with, like chess, basketball, rare earth minerals, cyber warfare, space exploration and nuclear research.
This is a process that Miss 侯 (Hóu) exemplifies. Only about 1 percent of Chinese play chess, and China has never been a chess power. But since 1991, China has produced four women’s world chess champions, and Ms. 侯 (Hóu) is the one with by far the most promise.
At this point, I have to put my sensitive male ego aside. You see, Ms. 侯 (Hóu) gamely agreed to play me after I interviewed her. She had just flown into 北京 (Běijīng) after winning the world championship, and she was exhausted — and she shredded me in 21 moves.
Most dispiriting, when I was teetering at the abyss near the end of the game, her coach nudged her and suggested mischievously that we should switch sides. Ms. 侯 (Hóu) would inherit my impossible position — and the gleam in her coach’s eye suggested that she would still win.
I protested that I could survive being beaten on the chess board by a schoolgirl. But to be toyed with, like a mouse by a cat — that would be too much. Ms. 侯 (Hóu) nodded compassionately and checkmated me a few moves later.
At 14 she became the youngest female grandmaster ever. She’s still so young that it’s unclear just how remarkable she will become.
Women in general haven’t been nearly as good at chess as men, and the world’s top women are mostly ranked well below the top men — but Ms. 侯 (Hóu) could be an exception. She is the only female chess player today considered to have a shot at becoming one of the top few players in the world, male or female.

A chess prodigy, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is the youngest Women’s World Chess Champion ever. Photo: ChessBase.com.

Cynics sometimes suggest that China’s rise as a world power is largely a matter of government manipulation of currency rates and trade rules, and there’s no doubt that there’s plenty of rigging or cheating going on in every sphere. But China has also done an extraordinarily good job of investing in its people and in spreading opportunity across the country. Moreover, perhaps as a legacy of Confucianism, its citizens have shown a passion for education and self-improvement — along with remarkable capacity for discipline and hard work, what the Chinese call “吃苦 (chī kǔ)”, or “eating bitterness.”
Ms. 侯 (Hóu) dined on plenty of bitterness in working her way up to champion. She grew up in the boondocks, in a county town in 江苏省 (Jiāngsū Province), and her parents did not play chess. But they lavished attention on her and spoiled her, as parents of only children (“little emperors”) routinely do in China.
China used to be one of the most sexist societies in the world — with female infanticide, foot binding, and concubinage — but it turned a corner and now is remarkably good at giving opportunities to girls as well as boys. When Ms. 侯 (Hóu)’s parents noticed her interest in a chess board at a store, they promptly bought her a chess set — and then hired a chess tutor for her.
叶江川 (Yè Jiāngchuān), the chief coach of the national men’s and women’s teams, told me that he played Ms. 侯 (Hóu) when she was 9 years old — and was stunned. “I saw that this kid was special”, he told me, and he invited her to move to 北京 (Běijīng) to play with the national teams. Three years later she was the youngest girl ever to compete in the world chess championships.
It will be many, many decades before China can challenge the United States as the overall “No. 1” in the world, for we have a huge lead and China still must show that it can transition to a more open and democratic society. But already in discrete areas — its automobile market, carbon emissions and now women’s chess — China is emerging as No. 1 here and there, and that process will continue.
There’s a lesson for us as well. China’s national commitment to education, opportunity and eating bitterness — those are qualities that we in the West might emulate as well. As you know after you’ve been checkmated by 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán).

Monday, January 3, 2011

Pomegranate

侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) – 阮露斐 (Ruǎn Lùfěi)
Women’s World Chess Championship Knockout Tournament; Final match game 1; Antakya, December 20, 2010
Caro-Kann Defence B12

1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. f3!? dxe4 4. fxe4 e5 5. Nf3 Bg4 6. Bc4 Nd7 7. c3 b5 8. Bd3!?TN Ngf6 9. 0-0 Bd6 10. Bg5 0-0 11. Nbd2 h6 12. Bh4 Qc7 13. Qc2 Nh5 14. h3 Be6 15. Rae1 Nf4 16. Bg3 Nxd3 17. Qxd3 Rad8 18. Bf2 a6 19. Nh4 Nb6 20. b3 Rfe8 21. Qf3 b4 22. Rc1 bxc3 23. Qxc3 exd4 24. Bxd4 c5? A mistake that could cost dearly, betraying 阮露斐 (Ruǎn Lùfěi)’s nervousness. Better was 24. ... Bf8 25. Nf5 Bxf5 26. Rxf5 c5! with good play for Black.


25. Bxg7 Bf4 26. Nhf3 Rxd2


27. Nxd2? 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) misses her best chance for success: 27. Bh8! f6 28. Nxd2 Be5 (28. ... Bh2+ 29. Kh1 Kxh8 29. Qe3+−) 29. Qe3 Kxh8 30. Rxc5 Qg7 31. Rxe5! fxe5 32. Qxb6 Bxh3 33. Qf6 and White stays a sound Pawn ahead. 27. ... Bxd2 28. Qxd2 Kxg7 29. Qc3+ Kh7 30. Qxc5. And now the exchange of Queens will leave White with a better ending: 30. ... Qxc5+ (30. ... Qd8!? 31. Qh5!?∞) 31. Rxc5. 31. ... Ra8 32. Ra5 Nc8 33. Rc1 Nd6 34. e5 (⌓ 34. Ra4! Rb8 35. Rxa6 Nxe4 36. Ra4±) 34. ... Nf5 35. Kf2 h5 36. Rc2 Nd4 37. Rd2 Nc6 38. Rc5 Ne7 39. b4 Kg6 40. a3 Kf5 41. Ke3 Rg8 42. Ra5 Rg3+ 43. Kf2 Rb3 44. Rxa6 Nd5 45. Ra5 Ne3 46. Rc5 Nc4 47. Rc2 Nxa3 48. R2c3 Rb2+ 49. Kg3 Nb1 50. Rf3+ Kg5 51. h4+ Kg6 52. Rc7 Kg7 53. Rf6 Kg8 54. Rf4 Rb3+ 55. Kh2 Rb2 56. Rc5 Na3 57. Rc3 Nb5 58. Rg3+ Kf8 59. Rg5 Nc7 60. Rxh5 Nd5 61. Re4 Kg7 62. Rg5+ Kh7 63. Rc4 Rb3 64. Rg3 Rb2 65. Rg5 Rb3 66. Rd4 Nxb4 67. Rg3 Rb2 68. Rc3 Nd5 69. Rcd3 Ne7 70. Rd2 Rb5 71. Re2 Ng6 72. Rde4 Bf5 73. e6 Bxe6 ½ : ½.

Genius is pain, too. Photo: Turkish Chess Federation.

La Belle Époque

[ Venice, autumn 1971. From left: Roberto Cosulich, Lubomir Kavalek, Sergio Mariotti, and Heikki Westerinen ]
Venice, autumn 1971. From left: Roberto Cosulich, Lubomir Kavalek, Sergio Mariotti, and Heikki Westerinen. Photo: The Chess Player, No. 1, vi – xii 1971, p. 236.