Women’s World Chess Champion Hou Yifan

Hou Yifan, the reigning Women's World Chess Champion, the youngest ever to win the title, poses for a photo in Beijing, China, on Feb. 21, 2012. Hou was born in east China's Jiangsu Province in 1994. She learnt chess at the age of 5 and a half and entered China's national team at the age of 9. In 2007, Hou became China's youngest National Women's Champion ever. She achieved Woman Grandmaster in 2007, and Grandmaster in 2009. In 2010, she became the youngest World Chess Champion in history by winning the Women's World Championship in Turkey, and she defended her title in Albania in 2011. Hou lists her hobbies as reading, swimming and listening to music, together with many other interests. Hou says that one of her plans is to challenge men chess players in the future and the other is to pursue higher eudcation in a college one day. (Xinhua/Wang Yuguo)