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He learned chess at the age of 5, became a female chess grandmaster at the age of 13, became the youngest "chess queen" in history at the age of 16, entered Peking University at the age of 18, went to Oxford University to study for a master's degree at the age of 24, and became the youngest full professor of Shenzhen University at the age of 26...
Open Hou Yifan's resume, and you will see a typical "other people's child".
After winning the chess gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games, Hou Yifan recently had a new identity - he joined Peking University and became a teacher in the Department of Physical Education and Research.
Hou Yifan, a two-time Peking University, Rhodes scholar, and the world's "chess queen", who is not yet 30 years old, interpreted a "life of opening and hanging".
△ Hou Yifan
The youngest "queen of chess"
Hou Yifan was born in Xinghua, Jiangsu Province, to parents who were ordinary workers — his father was a public official in the court and his mother was a nurse at a hospital, neither of whom had much to do with sports.
By chance, Hou Yifan came into contact with chess, and her father decided to send her to learn chess after discovering her national elephant talent. Just turned 5 years old, Hou Yifan studied with Xinghua chess player Wang Xian and began to learn chess systematically. At that time, the school opened a national elephant enlightenment class, and also held a school-level competition, and Hou Yifan was not allowed to win the championship.
After that, Hou Yifan began to participate in off-campus competitions. In February 2001, 7-year-old Hou Yifan won the Li Chengzhi Cup National Children's Chess Championship Women's 8-year-old Slow Chess Championship and 10-year-old Fast Chess Championship in Shanghai. Two years later, Hou Yifan, who became the master of the National Chess Association, participated in the World Junior Chess Championship held in Athens, Greece, and won the championship of the junior women's 10-year-old group, becoming the youngest world champion in the history of Chinese chess, and won the title of FIDE Master, the youngest FIDE master in China.
In 2003, she was successfully admitted to the International Chess Academy and was appreciated by head coach Ye Jiangchuan. During the game, the long-established chess grandmaster Ye Jiangchuan was surprised to find that the 9-year-old could see almost all his weaknesses. In this way, Hou Yifan was unexpectedly promoted to the youngest member of the chess national team, and in the same year, she won the first place in the World Junior Championships under 10 women's championship.
All the way from Xinghua, Jiangsu to Beijing, Hou Yifan stepped into a bigger stage.
At the 2010 World Women's Chess Championship, 16-year-old Hou Yifan reached the top, becoming the youngest "chess queen" in history. Two years later, at the 10th Gibraltar Open Chess Championship, Hou Yifan competed with seven men's international grandmasters and finally won the runner-up, the highest achievement achieved by a female chess player in 10 years.
In this tournament, Hou Yifan also ended the myth of the "queen of chess" Polga Jr. who was undefeated for 20 years, which was evaluated by many people in the industry as an "epoch-making victory".
△ Hou Yifan
The boldest decision
In the same year of the "epoch-making victory", Hou Yifan made a decision that shocked the international chess world: go to school at Peking University.
At the age of 18, the most golden age for a chess player, Hou Yifan decided to go to school.
That year, Hou Yifan, who was hovering between a professional chess player and going to school, asked himself four questions -
"Entering a college is something you have always wanted to accomplish and experience?" "The answer is yes."
"Is it likely to have an impact on your career?" "Yes, yes."
"What is the worst possible outcome of this potential impact?" "It's that the performance is affected and it may decline."
"If this happens, can you accept such a result, and do you still have the ability to change it after accepting this result?" "First of all, I can accept this result. And I feel like I still have some confidence that if I really want to come back, I can still... So, why not give it a try? ”
As a result, Peking University's School of International Studies has one more freshman.
If you think that Hou Yifan went to Peking University just to get a gold plating and get a Peking University diploma, then you are very wrong.
At Peking University, Hou Yifan twice won the first place in undergraduate subject assessment, and when he graduated, he applied for the "Global Nobel Prize for Undergraduates" - Rhodes Scholarship, and entered Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar to pursue a master's degree. Known as the hardest scholarship in history, the Rhodes Scholarship has more than 12,000 applicants each year, and only 83 people stand out, with an acceptance rate of only 0.7%.
In 2011, 2013 and 2016, Hou Yifan won the women's chess world championship three times, becoming the youngest "four-crown queen" in chess history. In 2017, Hou Yifan defeated a number of men's grandmasters and won the championship at the 50th Biel Chess Festival Grandmasters, becoming the first female chess player in the history of the tournament to win the grandmaster championship.
△Hou Yifan won the gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games
The youngest full professor
Studying at Peking University and Oxford broadened Hou Yifan's horizons.
When studying for a master's degree at Oxford University, Hou Yifan was most impressed: "Many people have always maintained a state of intellectual curiosity, full of enthusiasm and curiosity about life."
People often ask Hou Yifan, will he regret going to college? If she had put more effort into the field of chess, she should have achieved better results. Hou Yifan's answer was: "I have not been tired of chess, but along the way, I have found more meaningful things, and from these things, I have gained a new energy, which has made me look at the national elephant again." ”
In real life, life is not a chess game that needs to be won or lost, on the contrary, each step has its own meaning.
It was under the guidance of this mentality that in 2020, 26-year-old Hou Yifan took over the appointment letter of Shenzhen University and became the youngest full professor at the university.
After completing his studies from Oxford, Hou Yifan returned to China to participate in the competition in Shenzhen and discussed the development of the national elephant in colleges and universities with Liu Shilan, the president of Shenzhen Chess Academy and Asia's first female grandmaster. Liu Shilan actively encouraged Hou Yifan to work at Shenzhen University, and played a very big role in this process.
Becoming a professor at Shenzhen University made Hou Yifan feel fresh, "My own state is to be curious about life and willing to explore different things, which is also reflected in my career choice and planning." Hou Yifan said that before further study, he has always been very interested in the field of education, and hopes to explore the integration of sports and education, especially the combination of education and chess, and his eight years of study experience have strengthened his ideas.
△Hou Yifan participated in the Hangzhou Asian Games
Hou Yifan became a teacher largely to promote chess and let more students understand and love this logical and charming sport. She is very much looking forward to more newcomers receiving honors for China on the field: "I am very happy to see the progress of Asian chess, and I am even happier to see the progress of Chinese chess. ”
Now, Hou Yifan has officially joined Peking University and become a teacher in the Department of Physical Education, turning a new page in his life.
Modern Express + Reporter Wang Wei
Image source: Xinhua News Agency
(Proofreader Zhang Hongxia)