Yifan Hou

[Jack Maguire]

Oyster Magazine features the Women's World Chess Champion, Yifan Hou, now 20.

http://www.oystermag.com/born-in-94-chess-champion-hou-yifan-shot-by-ren-hang

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Yifan Hou is having a remarkable tournament in Lopota at the Grand Prix 2014 with 8/9 and a 2875 TPR. Her live rating of 2650 now has her within 26 points of Judit Polgar for top female on the planet.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Yifan Hou continues to fast close on Judit Polgar.

http://www.2700chess.com/women

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Yifan Hou has picked up 30 FIDE points this month and is now within 17 points of Judit Polgar.

http://www.2700chess.com/women

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Yifan Hou picks up 6 more FIDE points for her win against Motylev today and is now within 11 points of the birthday gal, Judit Polgar, who turned 38 today.

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Yifan Hou

Yifan Hou picks up 6 more FIDE points for her win against Motylev today and is now within 11 points of the birthday gal, Judit Polgar, who turned 38 today.

Yifan is the real deal. She certainly has proven that she can compete at the highest (or nearly highest) level.
Judit is certainly no slouch either. I would like to see a match between the two at some point (especially since Judit
usually/always declines to play in women-only tournaments. (that makes me wonder about women-only match??)

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Fait accompli (despite the loss to Pendyala Harikrishna today)!

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/06/crosswords/chess/an-elite-club-may-add-its-second-woman.html?_r=0

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Here's one of those Daniel King "quick chats" (11:29) with Hou Yifan in Tromso. I'm glad to hear she plans on playing more men's events in the future. Her 7/9 in Tromso in the Women's Olympiad earned her less than 2 FIDE points ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifry7ii4BbI

[Aris Marghetis]

Re: Yifan Hou

Here's one of those Daniel King "quick chats" (11:29) with Hou Yifan in Tromso. I'm glad to hear she plans on playing more men's events in the future. Her 7/9 in Tromso in the Women's Olympiad earned her less than 2 FIDE points ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifry7ii4BbI

I met Daniel King in person at the Olympiad, and he's a very nice man. I thanked him for "The Closed Sicilian"!

[Kerry Liles]

Re: Yifan Hou

Here's one of those Daniel King "quick chats" (11:29) with Hou Yifan in Tromso. I'm glad to hear she plans on playing more men's events in the future. Her 7/9 in Tromso in the Women's Olympiad earned her less than 2 FIDE points ):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ifry7ii4BbI

I have to say I was rather astonished at her proficiency in English (blush - that is rather pedestrian of me to be 'surprised').
A delightful young lady and obviously very focused and determined. An 11 1/2 minute quick chat flew by...

[Ken Kurkowski]

Re: Yifan Hou

I have been listening to several of these Daniel King "quick chats" on YouTube- fascinating to hear from chess players all over the world!

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

I have been listening to several of these Daniel King "quick chats" on YouTube- fascinating to hear from chess players all over the world!

Ken, you might also then enjoy some of the interviews conducted by Dr. Daaim Shabazz at his 'The Chess Drum' website.

http://www.thechessdrum.net/blog/2014/08/18/drum-interviews-14-olympiad/

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Yifan Hou is now more dominant on the female side of the ledger than Carlsen is to the men. Carlsen is just over 60 points higher rated than Aronian and Caruana and has near equal scores against both those opponents, dead equal with Aronian (15W/15L/42D) and a slight plus against Caruana. With Hou's win today against the women's #2, Humpy Koneru, Hou now has soared 79 points ahead (2664 vs 2585) and is plus 13 (16 wins, 3 losses, and 16 draws) in head-to-head encounters, including two World Championship matches. Today's win was very Carlsen like, in a dead equal position and neither player in any kind of time trouble, Hou just kept playing optimal moves until Koneru didn't.

[Jack Maguire]

Re: Yifan Hou

Further to my last post 3 days ago, the domination question has seemingly become incontrovertible. Hou has widened her lead over Koneru to 91.5 points (2669.6 vs 2578.1) while Carlsen's edge over Caruana has shrunk to 38.8 points (2859.6 vs 2820.8).