Four-time Women’s World Chess Champion 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) appearing as the cover girl on the fourth anniversary special issue (June 2016) of 《此间》 (Our Times), the multimedia magazine published by the Peking University Student Union. |
No doubt she does not need any advertising, but most other people do, and so she has no choice but to reconcile herself to the spotlight for others’ sake. She is none other than the strongest woman chess player ever by the name of Judit Polgár, who was ranked as high as number eight in the world in 2005, and who is the only woman who, from a strictly competitive viewpoint, can afford to challenge her fictional alter ego, Beth Harmon. Polgár retired in 2014, while she was still young, and since then she’s distinguished herself both as an organiser and a coach. “Chess connect us” is her favourite slogan, which to some may sound a little too marketing style, as, more often than not, for your safety and health, you’d do well to stay away from such “connections”. Perhaps there’s something to learn from Beth, too. Photo courtesy of JSTOR Daily. |
15th Women’s World Chess Champion Mariya Olehivna Muzychuk, interviewed by Halyna Tereshchuk for Radio Svoboda, could not avoid bringing together her impressions on the Netflix worldwide hit The Queen’s Gambit: “I would not say that I identify myself with the main character [Elizabeth “Beth” Harmon]. In comparison to men, few women do indeed play chess. There has never been a woman capable of winning the all-gender World Championship. But I liked all the good things of the miniseries, and especially the enthusiasm with which it was greeted. I liked the acting, because it is difficult, without being a chess player, to evoke the atmosphere, to sit at the board, to convey those emotions and moves — the way we play, the way we think. Of course, the miniseries does not reflect our way of life. The film remains a film. To be sure, there are no magic pills to become a World Champion. To be successful you have to work hard. Perhaps people like a shortcut such as a pill that may allow you not to play chess for eight years, as in the miniseries, and then come back and be on top again. Life does not work that way, and I guess that’s why the miniseries is so popular”, she said. Photo: Halyna Tereshchuk/Radio Svoboda/RFE/RL. |
