GOOD ROLE MODELS IMPORTANT

China's 4-time women's world chess champ Hou credits men for support in early years

- Melvyn Teoh

While Ding Liren became the first man from China to win the World Chess Championship in 2023, the Asian country has already been dominant in women's chess on the global stage for many years.

Their players have emerged triumphant 15 times in the last 20 editions of the Women's World Chess Championship, with four-time women's world champion Hou Yifan crediting their male counterparts for sparking that run.

The 30-year-old, who is in Singapore as a guest commentator for the World Chess Championship at Sentosa, told The Straits Times on Dec 8: "There has been a very strong chess tradition (in China), especially in the years past.

"Exceptional male players have been helping their female counterparts during training to achieve greater results."

This practice helped Xie Jun, the first Asian woman to become a grandmaster, make history by becoming China's first women's world champion in 1991 after defeating five-time champion Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia.

Those in her team included grandmaster Ye Jiangchuan, the second Chinese man to attain the grandmaster title and grandmaster Zhang Zhong, who went on to become the 2005 Asian champion.