21 years ago, there was a talented female chess player Zhu Chen who was quite famous in China, who caused a very big sensation because of her marriage to the Prince of Qatar, and later caused many controversies due to the change of nationality.
Zhu Chen (Figure 1)
After 21 years, is this former genius chess player married to a country with huge cultural differences and polygamy, and is he doing well now? In the first place, why did she resist such great pressure and insist on marrying Qatar?
All of this has to start with chess.
Zhu Chen was born in a scholarly mendi, as an engineer father and teacher mother from a young age attaches great importance to the cultivation of Zhu Chen, after trying to experience a variety of hobby projects, the parents found that Zhu Chen is quite fond of chess, and rare and talented. In order to cultivate Xiao Zhuchen, her parents specially found a famous teacher Huang Xiwen for the 8-year-old to guide her. Xiao Zhuchen also did not live up to the expectations of his parents and mentors, and his chess skills improved by leaps and bounds with age, and soon came to prominence in the junior competition, becoming the earliest world champion of Chinese cameras at the age of 12.
Figure 2
After that, Zhu Chen made great strides in the chess tournament, winning the national women's group B championship at the age of 14, the national women's group A championship at the age of 16, the national individual women's championship, the Asian youth women's championship, the world young women's championship at the age of 18, and the bronze medal for the Chinese women's team in the Olympic arena.
Figure 3
In addition, Zhu Chen's better countenance also allowed her to gain the title of the most beautiful "chess queen".
Just when the outside world admired this beautiful 18-year-old girl who shined in the chess world, Zhu Chen also met the person who changed her life in this year.
That person was her future husband, the Qatari chess player Al-Mohammed.
Zhu Chen and Al-Muhammad (Figure 4)
There are many definitions of Al-Muhammad, saying that he is the prince of Arab Qatar and has a prominent status. But in fact, Al is also a very good chess player, and the two also met for the first time on the field. The two who also became famous at a young age and were also top chess players had common hobbies and topics, and the two fell in love at first sight.
However, many differences have also brought many twists and turns to the future relationship between the two.
Zhu Chen, who has achieved many achievements, not only received an admission letter from Tsinghua University, but also won the championship at the subsequent World Youth Championships, just when the outside world was extremely optimistic about Zhu Chen's development, an incident that happened to her caused an uproar in the public.
Zhu Chen and Carl are married.
As a high-profile chess player, marrying another foreign chess player is destined to be incomprehensible to many people. Even her parents did not approve of the marriage, but her parents thought more about it: Carr's country was not only far from China, but also allowed polygamy, which was a huge challenge to traditional Chinese culture, and it was also unacceptable to her parents who loved Zhu Chen and feared that she would be wronged.
Figure 5
The marriage was still a foregone conclusion at the insistence of the two. Carl even promised Zhu Chen that he would only marry one wife in this life. Gradually, even the parents approved of the marriage.
Zhu Chen, who has gained a lot in love and family, has also gone well in his career, and in the January 2001 Chess World Rankings, Zhu Chen created the best ranking of Chinese female chess players in the world with the third place in the world.
Just when the public has gradually become accustomed to this transnational marriage, Zhu Chen's move has pushed himself to the cusp of the storm.
Zhu Chen changed his nationality to Carl's country.
The change of nationality means that Zhu Chen will play in the chess tournament in the future with the nationality of Qatar, and the honors he receives have nothing to do with China. This made the people who had always supported her unable to accept for a while, thinking that the talents that the country had cultivated so hard to cultivate fell to other countries in vain, and the questioning and ridicule were overwhelming towards Zhu Chen.
Is Zhu Chen really as ruthless as everyone thinks?
In fact, behind Zhu Chen's change of nationality, there are also countless struggles and trade-offs. When this decision was first made, in the face of overwhelming questions and interviews, the 30-year-old Zhu Chen was exhausted, did not dare to answer the call of the interview, did not want to read online articles, and under the many relief of his family, Zhu Chen slowly calmed down.
Zhu Chen and Carl, as important chess players in both countries, often need to go to competitions around the world, and in the six years after marriage, they gathered less and left more. The long-term separation has brought contradictions of all sizes to the two. This contradiction was once irreconcilable after having a daughter, the child could only be taken care of by the parents, and the elderly mother also lacked someone to take care of, which made Zhu Chen feel guilty.
Figure 6
For the life of separation between the two places, Zhu Chen has been thinking about changing the status quo. Originally, Zhu Chen also thought about letting Karl become a Chinese citizen, but anyway, either he came to China or he went to Qatar himself. But from the actual situation, Karl is the eldest son of the family, in addition to having parents to take care of, the bigger obstacle is that Qatar's customs and customs are destined not to let him leave. But if Zhu Chen goes to Qatar without changing her nationality, she will not be able to play chess, in order to continue to play her favorite chess in Qatar, Zhu Chen has only one way to choose, that is, to change her nationality.
Struggling with both career and family, Zhu Chen chose to renounce his Chinese citizenship and live with Carl in Qatar.
Later, in response to the media's questioning, Zhu Chen explained that because of Carl's special status, if he wanted to live with him in his country, he needed to become a Qatari national, and becoming Qatari national meant that he needed to represent Qatar. For the matter of changing nationality, I also seriously considered the decision after two years, when I had passed the peak of my career, the level was not enough to pose a big threat to China, the two daughters needed a mother, and I just wanted to be an ordinary person for my daughter.
Zhu Chen's parents gave Zhu Chen great support and comfort at this time. They said that they respected their daughter's choice, and they were angry at the speculation on the Internet that Zhu Chen had changed his nationality because of the temptation of economic interests, and their daughter just wanted to be an ordinary person and have a normal life.
(The second president of the Chinese Chess Academy: Wang Runan) Figure 7
For this matter, the answer of the president of the Chinese Chess Academy showed a kind of generosity. Wang Runan, president of the Chinese Chess Academy, was a little surprised when he learned that Zhu Chen had changed his nationality, but then expressed his understanding, saying that a big girl went abroad to marry and have children, first of all, considering that the family was beyond reproach, and now That Chinese society is becoming more and more democratic and open, changing nationality is also a personal will, and the Chinese Chess Academy will try its best to retain it, but it has no right to interfere, let alone to block it. In addition, Zhu Chen had actually passed the peak period, and her departure, the loss was not as great as imagined.
Zhu Chen, who changed his nationality, represented Qatar in the Doha Asian Games, perhaps because of poor state, or perhaps because of excessive psychological pressure and failure to achieve good results. The chinese people were not able to adapt to the choices she made, and they were also dissatisfied with her, and Zhu Chen, who was not very smooth in her career, slowly returned to life.
It's just that the controversy surrounding her has not completely dissipated.
When Zhu Chen learned that her girlfriend was still single, she once joked that she would marry her husband together, which was taken as ironclad evidence that Zhu Chen supported her husband's polygamy and wanted to marry her husband; the photos that looked slightly old were considered to be very miserable; there were rumors that Zhu Chen had no status in Qatar, had no right to return to China to visit her family, and even her mother was hospitalized and "died" before she could take care of her...
(Figure 8)
In fact, Zhu Chen's life after marriage is still relatively happy and happy, raising two beautiful daughters, living a rich life, and her husband Carl also fulfilled the promise of that year, did not marry another wife, but only took his wife and two daughters seriously. It's just that although the daughters have parents who are top chess players, they are not very interested in national chess, but prefer outdoor sports such as tennis. The family returns to China every year to visit their parents and enjoy the fun of traveling together.
Karl also tried his best to give Zhuchen the best material living conditions, which can also be reflected in Zhuchen's social media in his daily life. The gentleness and thoughtfulness of her husband and the warm company of her daughters made Zhu Chen appear more and more calm. Now she is 45 years old, although not as beautiful and spirited as when she was young, but she has a good attitude and allows herself to grow old gracefully. With a successful career and family together, what could be better than that?
Figure 9
In terms of career, although Zhu Chen rarely participates directly in international competitions, he was elected as the treasurer in the new election of the FIDE in 2018, representing the chess player Zhu Chen into the "core management" of the FIDE. In addition, Zhu Chen also founded the "Zhu Chen Cup" chess tournament held in China every year, and often came to China to guide the students. It can be seen that Zhu Chen is also repaying the kindness of the motherland in his own way.
In fact, aside from various identities, Zhu Chen and Karl are just a couple in love, because of their hobbies, but also because of the difference in identity and experienced some ups and downs, in the country and love, career and family, Zhu Chen made a choice to make themselves regretless, and it is precisely because of various tribulations that this feeling is particularly valuable.
Figure 10
For women, it is difficult to make choices in the face of differences between career and family, if you are Zhu Chen, what choice will you make?