侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán): First study, then play
With a quiet smile,
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) and her teammates of the Chinese team opened the curtain of the
Linglong Tire Cup Sino-European Chess Élite Tournament in the hustle and bustle of
Belgrade spring. When the games finally ended, she said she would get back to her studies as soon as possible. At present, she has a clear direction and hopes to make new chess explorations in a wider field.
She was able to take part in the first Sino-European Chess Élite Tournament, which was jointly sponsored and organised by
山东 (Shāndōng) Linglong Tire Co., Ltd. and 齐鲁 (Qílǔ) Chess Sport Development Co., Ltd., just because it was scheduled on her school vacation. Traditionally, British schools have three holidays a year: Christmas, Easter and summer. Now it’s Easter holiday. At first she had planned not to return to China for Easter, in order to prepare herself for an exam in late April. When she received the invitation, her first thought was to come directly from the United Kingdom, which was most convenient for her. Later, because a Rhodes Trust delegation paid a diplomatic visit to China, she finally changed her itinerary. She returned to Europe with a large suitcase just in time for the start of the Sino-European Chess Élite Tournament.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has always been very interested in education. When she applied for a Rhodes Scholarship, she felt it might be somewhat decoupled from her degree in International Relations.
She then enrolled in a one-year Master of Public Policy (MPP). Now that two-thirds of the semester was spent, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) feels that this career path may be more suitable to her own ambitions, as well as “very rewarding”.
侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has learned some universal things about her new subject matter of study, it being a discipline that studies how public policy infuences other policies in different fields involving economics, philosophy, law, politics, and even statistical and quantitative analysis. As part of this course, she feels she’s more learning a way to think. For instance, if a policy has to be implemented better, what background needs to be analysed, and what factors need to be examined in advance? “If the understanding of education is the challenge of the future, then that’s a good transition”, she said.
Furthermore, students have very different backgrounds. They come from different countries, and there is a large age span among them. Their work background is even more varied. “Most worked in different fields for many years, until they are being called out on an upgrade. Therefore, there will be lawyers, staff from the World Bank and investment banks, government civil servants, and non-government staff. Everyone can learn a lot from each other’s experiences”.
In addition to her intensive studies, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) has the opportunity to “pull advertising” for chess. For instance, last March
she took part in the interuniversity match between Oxford and Cambridge, which boasts more than 100 years of history. She enthusiastically shared her experiences with the young school friends interested in
artificial intelligence, and with those aimed at promoting chess among girls. Previously she played some rounds of the German “Schach Bundesliga”, and also guested as a commentator at November’s
World Chess Championship 2018 — since then she had relatively more free time.
She began to play chess in 1999 — it’s got to be twenty years by now. After so many years at the board, she devoted one year to her studies. As long as there will be gratifying opportunities, she certainly hopes to be able to play again in the top chess circuit. Indeed, she received lots of invitations for
élite tournaments, but for now her studies are too hard to sacrifice half a month’s time, so she reluctantly had to let it go.
As for her future, she hopes to have both time and energy to expand other fields of research, so as to bring more resources to chess programs, and, in particular, to the development of chess in China.
In her view, in recent years Chinese chess achieved good results both on competitive and promotional levels. Many professionals did very well, but the stage outside the board is far wide. Her professional experience is very suitable for exploration and research, in order to make the development of chess talent more diversified, flexible and innovative.
“This is a good thing for chess and a challenge for myself”.
Whatever one does, 侯逸凡 (Hóu Yìfán) believes that doing everything well may be not enough to live safe. Her ambition is to be able to constantly enrich herself, get out of her comfort zone, advance with the times, and aim for comprehensive development.
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