Hou Yifan

Hou Yifan (Chinese: 侯逸凡; pinyin: Hóu Yìfán pronunciation) (born February 27, 1994, in Xinghua, Jiangsu, China) is a Chinese chess prodigy. She is a former Women's World Chess Champion, the youngest ever to win the title, as well as the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of Grandmaster.

At the age of 12, Hou became the youngest player ever to participate in the FIDE Women's World Championship (Yekaterinburg 2006) and the Chess Olympiad (Torino 2006). In June 2007, she became China's youngest National Women's Champion ever. She achieved the titles of Woman FIDE Master in January 2004, Woman Grandmaster in January 2007, she would have qualified for the International Master title in September 2008 by reaching the final of the Women's World Championship but in August 2008 she had already qualified for the more prestigious Grandmaster title by achieving her 3rd GM norm. In 2010, she became the youngest Women's World Chess Champion in history by winning the Women's World Championship in Hatay, Turkey, at the age of 16. She then defended her title by defeating Indian GM Koneru Humpy in November 2011.

In the most recent (October 2012) FIDE rating list, Hou is ranked as the No. 1 girl player in the world, the No. 2 female player, and the No. 13 junior player. She is only the third female chess player to achieve a FIDE rating of over 2600.

Hou produced a stunning performance in January 2012 playing in a very strong open tournament in Gibraltar. In a field of 55 other grandmasters, 11 of them rated at or above 2700, Hou shared the lead with Nigel Short on 8/10, subsequently losing to Short in rapidplay. She had faced 7 of the 2700+ players and achieved an overall tournament performance rating of 2872.