Career
Hou started playing chess regularly at the age of 6, but was already fascinated with the game when she was 3 years old. Hou's father, Hou Xuejian, a magistrate, often took his young daughter to a bookstore after dinner. He noticed that the little girl liked to stare at glass chess pieces behind the window. He later bought his daughter her first chess set. The 3-year-old was able to beat her father and grandmother after a few weeks. In 1999, her father engaged a chess mentor, IM Tong Yuanming, for his 5-year-old daughter. Tong later said that Hou was an unusual talent, showing "strong confidence, distinguished memory, calculating ability and fast reaction." The young girl's talent impressed many people.
In 2003, Hou played against the chief coach of the Chinese National men's and women's chess teams, Ye Jiangchuan, for the first time. The chess master was surprised that the 9-year-old could identify almost all of his weak moves. "Then I knew she was an exceptional genius", Ye said. That year, Hou became the youngest member of the national team and won first place at the World Youth Championship for girls under age 10. In June 2007, she became China's youngest ever national champion.
She was admitted to the National Chess Center, an academy for young talented players from all over the country, in Beijing when she was 10, with leading Chinese grandmasters Ye Jiangchuan and Yu Shaoteng as her trainers. In order to better support her chess career, her family relocated to Beijing in 2003.
Hou's mother, a former nurse, accompanies her daughter on the international tournament circuit. Hou is homeschooled and lists her interests as reading and studying, and her favorite chess player as Bobby Fischer.
Chess writer Leonard Barden has said that she could rival Judit Polgár as the best ever female player. Of her own career, Hou said in 2007:
I took up chess because I was fascinated by the pieces – I just liked it. In the future, I want to be a professional chess player or maybe study to be a doctor".
Read more about this topic: Hou Yifan
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