Chess Superstar 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán)
“I’d prefer not to make distinctions between women and men”
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is the best female player in the world. The 24-year-old explains how she plans her future — and how she measures herself against men at the chessboard.
An Interview by Christian Gödecke.
The GRENKE Chess Classic has an undeniable image of itself. Here Fabiano Caruana came directly from Berlin, after his successful Candidates Tournament – and in the first round game he met who he will be challenging in London next fall: World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. By November such a constellation will no longer exists. They were both at the GRENKE.
The first three rounds of the GRENKE Chess Classic took place in Karlsruhe, concurrently to the mass GRENKE Chess Open, which was surprisingly won by the 13-year-old German wunderkind Vincent Keymer. Then it moved to Baden-Baden, where not far from the Casino, the remaining seven rounds were to be played. Here, in the Kulturhaus LA8, the pros were sitting on a small stage, including former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand and Levon Grigori Aronian, who had performed so badly at the Candidates Tournament.
And 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán).
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), who played with Black against Aronian in the fourth round, freed herself from a slightly threatening position and got a draw. Her opponent then shook his head in frustration. 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) was happy on this Wednesday a week ago. She played “okay”, she says. The 24-year-old Chinese woman is by far the best female player in the world, and it’s always a cover story when a woman asserts herself in the male dominated chess world. By now, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is used to that.
“I’d prefer not to make distinctions between women and men”
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is the best female player in the world. The 24-year-old explains how she plans her future — and how she measures herself against men at the chessboard.
An Interview by Christian Gödecke.
The GRENKE Chess Classic has an undeniable image of itself. Here Fabiano Caruana came directly from Berlin, after his successful Candidates Tournament – and in the first round game he met who he will be challenging in London next fall: World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen. By November such a constellation will no longer exists. They were both at the GRENKE.
The first three rounds of the GRENKE Chess Classic took place in Karlsruhe, concurrently to the mass GRENKE Chess Open, which was surprisingly won by the 13-year-old German wunderkind Vincent Keymer. Then it moved to Baden-Baden, where not far from the Casino, the remaining seven rounds were to be played. Here, in the Kulturhaus LA8, the pros were sitting on a small stage, including former World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand and Levon Grigori Aronian, who had performed so badly at the Candidates Tournament.
And 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán).
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), who played with Black against Aronian in the fourth round, freed herself from a slightly threatening position and got a draw. Her opponent then shook his head in frustration. 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) was happy on this Wednesday a week ago. She played “okay”, she says. The 24-year-old Chinese woman is by far the best female player in the world, and it’s always a cover story when a woman asserts herself in the male dominated chess world. By now, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) is used to that.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), 24, was not only the youngest Women’s World Chess Champion (16) ever. At the age of 14, for a few months she was also the youngest Grandmaster of chess history — including men. Her current Elo rating is 2657. A few months ago, she was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Oxford University, where she will start study next fall. Photo © Valery Sharifullin/TASS. |
Spiegel Online: Miss 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán), you are absolutely unrivaled among the other world’s female players. What’s the difference when you play against the best men?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): I’d prefer not to make distinctions between women and men. Let’s call it general level of play. World élite’s games, as also here at the GRENKE Chess Classic, are more accurate, there are fewer mistakes. I learn a lot from the games against the very best of players: I fight, and it encourages me to get ahead.
Spiegel Online: How far do you want to go? The World Chess Championship title may be the greatest possible goal.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): Well, first of all, I was hoping I could play better than I did. The goal of the World Chess Championship is on my way, but for now I’m not even around enough for it. Next, I want to get an Elo rating of 2700 [the system that measures each player’s skill level in chess; currently 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has 2657 — Ed. Note] and become much more stable. My weakness was the lack of consistency. But in the past few years there have also been a lot of – let’s say – distractions. My studies, ideas and plans related to chess, but not chess only.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): I’d prefer not to make distinctions between women and men. Let’s call it general level of play. World élite’s games, as also here at the GRENKE Chess Classic, are more accurate, there are fewer mistakes. I learn a lot from the games against the very best of players: I fight, and it encourages me to get ahead.
Spiegel Online: How far do you want to go? The World Chess Championship title may be the greatest possible goal.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): Well, first of all, I was hoping I could play better than I did. The goal of the World Chess Championship is on my way, but for now I’m not even around enough for it. Next, I want to get an Elo rating of 2700 [the system that measures each player’s skill level in chess; currently 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has 2657 — Ed. Note] and become much more stable. My weakness was the lack of consistency. But in the past few years there have also been a lot of – let’s say – distractions. My studies, ideas and plans related to chess, but not chess only.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) playing her last round game against Arkadij Naiditsch. Photo: Maria Alekseevna Emelianova. |
Spiegel Online: What are these plans?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): At some point, I realised that playing beautiful chess for an audience was not enough for me. Chess has given me very much, and now I’m thinking about how it could benefit more people than just the players themselves. That’s why I plan to promote chess all around the world. Unfortunately, the energy of a human being is limited, yet I want to try to combine study, chess and chess projects. The consequence, however, is probably that you can not carry on several things at the same time in the best possible way. Or not so fast.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) talks quietly, almost whispering. She chooses her words carefully, and even after a long digression, she returns to the original matter again and again. People who knows her since a long time like to say that it’s a delight to speak about chess with the 24-year-old. But even more delightful is to speak with her about everything else.
Spiegel Online: What can chess give to humans?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): There are certainly reasons why girls are not particularly enthusiastic about chess. I believe that chess can strengthen personality and teach one to deal with mistakes. It also provides education. Concentration. And I’m also convinced that the game itself can help reduce the crime rate.
Spiegel Online: And what do you want to give chess as an ambassador?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): I wouldn’t call myself an ambassador, because I would wish to go still deeper. Ambassadors usually are only representatives. I could play for another ten or twenty years, and I think that in the meantime I can make myself useful in other ways, too. For example, chess could play a big role in underdeveloped regions of the world, in China and Africa. Some players are already doing something, but that’s still regionally limited. There is no one big program. Chess itself can certainly help implement an overall change process.
Spiegel Online: What do you mean?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): There are several competent coaches who can make players improve the most, eventually till to Grandmasters. But chess is auto-referential. I guess we can do much more on that. Another aim is to make chess more interesting to sponsors. Chess is not as spectacular as other sports: two people sit one in front of the other at a board and move figures. That looks boring.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has had good news today in Baden-Baden: the commitment of the élite University of Oxford. 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) will be getting the Master of Public Policy there in September. She is going to leave to United States on this weekend already. The Chinese woman starts an internship at the science initiative Breakthrough Listen – that involve, among others, the billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin.
Spiegel Online: Now, with all your engagements, it’s hard to imagine that chess is still number one in your life.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): In first place are family and friends. Chess was very important in my life and for my path. And it will continue to be so, as well as my studies or now the opportunity for Breakthrough. I don’t want to put one thing higher than the other, so I’ll try to combine everything.
Spiegel Online: How can you do it? You said it yourself, the energy of a person is limited.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): I try to keep things positive, as my parents always teached me. I’m not worried that something might go wrong. Every step and every experience are important and will eventually pay off, even if you do not immediately see it.
Spiegel Online: Is it true that you still play chess especially by virtue of your talent?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): No, I’m still training. But I can’t say that I’ve done a great job so far [laughs]. I devote more time to great tournaments, but quite often I don’t even get into chess, especially during studies or exams. And I also want to get to know people. I’m aware I have to train more, and hopefully I will find the time to do it.
Spiegel Online: What does that depend on?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): From my future. I have to choose my tournaments more carefully. I prefer super-tournaments because of the challenge involved. But for playing such tournaments I have to prepare properly, otherwise a disaster will befall.
Spiegel Online: Just like in Wijk aan Zee, where you did not win not even one of 13 games and finished with 2½ points?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): Exactly. I admittedly entered the tournament completely unprepared. That was really a hard experience. And a lesson.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): At some point, I realised that playing beautiful chess for an audience was not enough for me. Chess has given me very much, and now I’m thinking about how it could benefit more people than just the players themselves. That’s why I plan to promote chess all around the world. Unfortunately, the energy of a human being is limited, yet I want to try to combine study, chess and chess projects. The consequence, however, is probably that you can not carry on several things at the same time in the best possible way. Or not so fast.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) talks quietly, almost whispering. She chooses her words carefully, and even after a long digression, she returns to the original matter again and again. People who knows her since a long time like to say that it’s a delight to speak about chess with the 24-year-old. But even more delightful is to speak with her about everything else.
Spiegel Online: What can chess give to humans?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): There are certainly reasons why girls are not particularly enthusiastic about chess. I believe that chess can strengthen personality and teach one to deal with mistakes. It also provides education. Concentration. And I’m also convinced that the game itself can help reduce the crime rate.
Spiegel Online: And what do you want to give chess as an ambassador?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): I wouldn’t call myself an ambassador, because I would wish to go still deeper. Ambassadors usually are only representatives. I could play for another ten or twenty years, and I think that in the meantime I can make myself useful in other ways, too. For example, chess could play a big role in underdeveloped regions of the world, in China and Africa. Some players are already doing something, but that’s still regionally limited. There is no one big program. Chess itself can certainly help implement an overall change process.
Spiegel Online: What do you mean?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): There are several competent coaches who can make players improve the most, eventually till to Grandmasters. But chess is auto-referential. I guess we can do much more on that. Another aim is to make chess more interesting to sponsors. Chess is not as spectacular as other sports: two people sit one in front of the other at a board and move figures. That looks boring.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has had good news today in Baden-Baden: the commitment of the élite University of Oxford. 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) will be getting the Master of Public Policy there in September. She is going to leave to United States on this weekend already. The Chinese woman starts an internship at the science initiative Breakthrough Listen – that involve, among others, the billionaire tech investor Yuri Milner, Mark Zuckerberg and Sergey Brin.
Spiegel Online: Now, with all your engagements, it’s hard to imagine that chess is still number one in your life.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): In first place are family and friends. Chess was very important in my life and for my path. And it will continue to be so, as well as my studies or now the opportunity for Breakthrough. I don’t want to put one thing higher than the other, so I’ll try to combine everything.
Spiegel Online: How can you do it? You said it yourself, the energy of a person is limited.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): I try to keep things positive, as my parents always teached me. I’m not worried that something might go wrong. Every step and every experience are important and will eventually pay off, even if you do not immediately see it.
Spiegel Online: Is it true that you still play chess especially by virtue of your talent?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): No, I’m still training. But I can’t say that I’ve done a great job so far [laughs]. I devote more time to great tournaments, but quite often I don’t even get into chess, especially during studies or exams. And I also want to get to know people. I’m aware I have to train more, and hopefully I will find the time to do it.
Spiegel Online: What does that depend on?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): From my future. I have to choose my tournaments more carefully. I prefer super-tournaments because of the challenge involved. But for playing such tournaments I have to prepare properly, otherwise a disaster will befall.
Spiegel Online: Just like in Wijk aan Zee, where you did not win not even one of 13 games and finished with 2½ points?
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): Exactly. I admittedly entered the tournament completely unprepared. That was really a hard experience. And a lesson.
(English translation by I, Robot)
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