Friday, September 20, 2013

Hou Yifan Won 2013 Women's World Champion

The Women's World Championship of chess finally concluded tonight with Hou Yifan as the winner. The match between Women World champion GM Anna Ushenina vs challenger GM Hou Yifan is happening in Taizhou, China, runs from September 10 - 28, 2013. Taizhou is Hou "Houdini" Yifan's hometown and this proven to be a sweet choice for Hou as she won the match. The match itself was very much one sided. If take it the elo rating different, Hou Yifan is 2609 in rating while Anna 'only' 2500, one should take the final score 5.5-1.5 as a 'normal' result. Still the chess fans will interested to see what happened in Anna's camp, if there were 'x-factor' alibi to her bad result. UPDATED, well, sources in Europe-Echec reported about Alexander Khalifman issue with the food (too spicy and no western food option on the venue), being awaked at 1:10 am by the hotel staff (who warn of a possible lack of water and breakfast issue.

Anna Ushenina's points only came from draws, all with Black side playing Sicilian defence, she lost 4 games, two with white and two with black in the final round. Looking at the game, Anna was mostly outplayed in the middlegame and other factor was time trouble. It's not like the games went bad from the beginning, this make the excuses rather not 'sounds' on the board..... buuuut, let's wait for this story to developed more.


The results are:

2013 Women's World Championship Anna Ushenina vs Hou Yifan
1. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou 0-1 E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
2. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina ½-½  B33 Sicilian
3. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou 0-1 E32 Nimzo-Indian, Classical
4. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina ½-½  B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres Attack
5. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina ½-½ B81 Sicilian, Scheveningen, Keres Attack
6. A Ushenina vs Yifan Hou 0-1  E17 Queen's Indian
7. Yifan Hou vs A Ushenina 1-0  B90 Sicilian, Najdorf

Hou Yifan returns to her status as World Champion right after Anna resign on move 40, round 7. Noted that Hou Yifan was very good at match playing. Her last match scores was as follow:

Ruan Lufei vs Hou Yifan 3-5 - 2010 Women's World Championship , final round after a KO format
Hou Yifan vs Koneru Humpy 5.5-2.5 - 2011 Women's World Championship, Koneru was challenger

In 2012 Hou Yifan unsuccessful defend her title in a KO format, she lost to Monica Socko as early as in round two. Exactly on this event that Anna Ushenina won the title defeating Antoaneta Stefanova in the final. Hou Yifan will need to play in KO format of 2014 World Championship, even though she was a reign champion. Surely something not similar to the 'men''s version of champion privilege. 

I have uploaded an interview with Hou Yifan from 2011.

Meanwhile..... the official website contained lots of superb captured photos by Anastasiya Karlovich. Surely she is a good photographer and all the photos was well executed, I wonder what is her DSLR brand and what lens she used.

Here the side story of the match, a survey to Chess World Champion outfit during these 7 rounds of play. It's seems like the players only bring limited set of clothes for the match and not fancy of the idea to change it every round!

The Fashion Battle:
Hou Yifan
Navy Blue with Chinese traditional pattern (Round 1 and 7)
White (round 2,3 and 5)
Pink (round 4)
Black (round 6)

Anna Ushenina
Pink ... (round 1, 4,5 and 6!)
Black and Grey,  Monochrome theme (round 2,3 and 7)


Anna Ushenina vs Hou Yifan  - round 1 to 7 from top to bottom 
.... all photos by Anastasiya Karlovich taken from official website

Di pertarungan memperebutkan gelar juara dunia catur wanita, Hou Yifan menjungkalkan juara bertahan Anna Ushenina. Hou Yifan adalah pecatur China yang merupakan pecatur terkuat wanita ke tiga di dunia saat ini (Judit Polgar dan Koneru Humpy ada di atas Hou Yifan). Hou Yifan juga sebelumnya sudah mengecap gelar Juara dunia wanita dari tahun 2010 - 2012. Anna Ushenina mengambil gelar ini setelah menang di kejuaraan dunia wanita tahun 2012. 


Di duel catur antara Anna Ushenina dan penantang Hou Yifan, jalannya pertandingan cukup berat sebelah. Hou Yifan mengalahkan Anna dengan angka telak 5.5-1.5. Hou Yifan pun berhak atas gelar juara catur wanita kembali. Di tahun 2014, Hou Yifan wajib mempertahankan gelarnya dengan mengikuti kejuaraan dunia , di mana antara lain WGM Irene K. Sukandar akan terjun juga. Selamat untuk Hou Yifan!

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