Talk:Hou Yifan

Not a GM yet?

According to this link, she only has two GM norms so far (first ar Aeroflot, second at World Junior).[1] I'm editing the article, and Chess prodigy article, accordingly. Peter Ballard (talk) 11:32, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

That report was before Zhao Xue had her GM title confirmed.--KL Mark II (talk) 11:40, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Can you provide a cite, saying Hou Yifan has the 3 norms? Otherwise it shouldn't go in. Peter Ballard (talk) 11:42, 31 August 2008 (UTC)

Akhc pointed out that Zhao Xue is now a GM. This appears to be true based on her online FIDE rating card, though the Women's World Championship 2008 website lists her as an IM. However, even if her title has been ratified, I would like to see a confirmation of a third GM norm from FIDE before we say that Hou Yifan is a GM-elect. Incidentally, the Chessdom report that says that Hou Yifan definitely earned a GM norm at the Ataturk Women Masters because "there were 2 GM players" must be wrong since the requirement is 3 GM opponents, thus the whole point about the ratification of Zhao Xue's GM title. Laserlight (talk) —Preceding undated comment was added at 18:50, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

Can I just ask a question - usually when someone gets the GM title people usually say they got it at x years, x months, x days here. Is this when they get the third norm (ie the last day of that tournament) or when the new FIDE rating list comes out or when FIDE officially declares so? thanks. Video*winter (talk) 19:46, 1 September 2008 (UTC)

In answer to Laserlight: no, her FIDE rating card calls her a WGM, not a GM. In answer to Video*winter: it's the day they qualify, i.e. the day get the last norm (see Chess_prodigy#List_of_youngest_grandmasters). p.s. good work on the article everyone. Peter Ballard (talk) 00:00, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

No, look carefully: Zhao Xue's FIDE title is listed as "Woman Grand Master (GM)". This means that she also holds the GM title. In contrast, Hou Yifan is listed as "Woman Grand Master (WGM)", while a male grandmaster like Viswanathan Anand is listed as "Grand Master". Laserlight (talk)

Yes, FIDE have made a pig's ear of their site. The situation with Zhao Xue would appear to be that she has been ratified as all the other candidates for ratification of GM Title in her batch have indeed been made GMs. FWIW Susan Polgar in her blog refers to Yifan as GM-Elect. However I can find nowhere on the FIDE site for current GM title applications to see if the chinese chess association have made any application for her. akhc (talk)

Oh I see. You were talking about Zhao Xue's rating card, I was talking about Hou Yifan's rating card. Peter Ballard (talk) 05:05, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Here's the ref where Polgar calls Hou Yifan a GM-elect http://susanpolgar.blogspot.com/2008/08/wcc-photos.html . I'd class Susan Polgar as a pretty reliable source, but not a perfect one. So I've put the Polgar reference in the article, but qualified it as Polgar's opinion alone. I think that's all we can do until more official word comes out. Peter Ballard (talk) 02:33, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Ok. Fide have reinstated their FIDE title applications page http://www.fide.com/info/titles/title-applications and no sign of any app from the Chinese for Hou. Having said that the app for Zhao Xue happened 6 months after she actually finished the North Ural Cup Tournament where she got her required GM norm so maybe the Chinese are just slow (though given she'd be the youngest female GM ever I'd have thought they would have applied by now given they like setting records! akhc (talk)

Susan Polgar also said she is a gm-elect here in her ChessCafe.com column. What does GM-elect mean? That she will definitely become a grandmaster come October '08(??) RybCRLSN (talk) 14:45, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

GM-Elects are basically players who have fulfilled the title requirements but because of the way FIDE works these titles have to be ratified and formally conferred at the quarterly FIDE meetings. Given that just about every sport I can think of have monthly or weekly updates to ranking lists it really seems FIDE is determined to remain rooted in the past. akhc (talk)

FIDE's WWCC semifinal report states that she is a GM-elect 141.30.217.50 (talk) 16:32, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Okay, I added your reference. Seems pretty official to me. Thanks. 20:39, 9 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Artepnem (talk • contribs)

A FIDE press release calling her a GM-elect is good enough for me. I've removed the Polgar refs and just referred to that instead. I've also updated the intro, and the list at Chess prodigy. Peter Ballard (talk) 03:28, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

WFM title

Do you guys know when and where she earned her Woman FIDE Master title?Artepnem (talk) 02:00, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

I don't think such a lowly title (for someone of her talent) is that important, but it seems she got it in 2004. The Week in Chess has her listed as unrated when winning the 2003 world U10 girls' championship[2]; then in late 2004 she is listed as having the WFM title.[3]

I'll add that she got the WFM tilte in 2004 because thats when she entered the fide rating list with an elo greater than 2100 - automatically qualifying her. —Preceding unsigned comment added by RybCRLSN (talk • contribs) 23:35, 3 September 2008 (UTC)

Pronunciation?

How do you pronounce the name?--84.189.112.118 (talk) 11:42, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

Hoo Yee Fan. —Preceding unsigned comment added by BriefingXO (talk • contribs) 13:35, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

My guess would have been "How Yee Fun". But I don't want a guess I want an answer. --84.189.64.87 (talk) 18:09, 6 September 2008 (UTC)

See Pinyin#Rules given in terms of English pronunciation. Conscious (talk) 09:01, 7 September 2008 (UTC)

The English spelling that comes closest to the actual pronunciation is "Ho Yeefun". There is a text-to-speech tool here: http://www.iflylanguage.com/ltt/Advance.aspx Enter 侯逸凡 and press play. --84.189.71.112 (talk) 19:52, 8 September 2008 (UTC)

I couldn't enter the characters. 20:35, 9 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Artepnem (talk • contribs)

Try with http://www.iflylanguage.com/ltt/ click on Advanced Reading Mode. Firefox doesn't seem to work. I couldn't find anything better than that site.--84.189.101.252 (talk) 17:44, 10 September 2008 (UTC)

Tournaments

I think I've completed all the major international tournaments she has competed in. If anybody wants to fill in any omissions then please do. -Artepnem (talk) 01:27, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Good work! However, I wonder if a table might be better? As her career goes on, an article of mostly one paragraph for every tournament she plays would make for boring reading, IMHO. Better, in my opinion, is to put the highlights in the text of the article, and list all tournaments in a table at the end. Comments? Peter Ballard (talk) 03:01, 9 September 2008 (UTC)

Maybe later the paragraphs can be fleshed out and made more interesting to read with the description of opinions, performances, opponents, games (analysis), anecdotes, historical perspectives etc20:32, 9 September 2008 (UTC) —Preceding unsigned comment added by Artepnem (talk • contribs)

yup nice work in going back and filling out all the tournaments hou has competed in. however, is it really relevant to her wiki entry that we have interesting facts such as ni hua winning the men's chinese chess championship the year hou won the female one? I can understand reporting other players who competed against her in the same championship but to have a reference to a winner in a championship she did not play seems superfluous to me. Akhc (talk) 08:53, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I looked at this page [4] and it lists her early accomplishements. I was going to add these but I have no idea what they are or mean. Lol. Does anybody know their significance? They are mostly domestic titles. The ones I striked out are those that have been mentioned.

• 2001 Li Zhicheng Cup Woman 8-year old Team Champion
• 2002 Qitong Cup Woman Team B Champion
• 2003 Li ZhiCheng Cup Woman 10-year old Team Champion
• 2003 World Championships for Girls Under 10 Champion
• 2004 Draft Woman 12 under Team Champion
• 2004 World Youth Championships Woman 10—year old Rank 3
• 2004 Tied for first (third on tiebreak) in the boys’ section for the same age group
• 2004 Li ZhiCheng Woman 12 Team Champion
• 2005 China Exclusive Zone Woman Regional Champion
• 2005 World Youth Team Woman 12-year old Rank 5
• 2005 First-Team Woman Group Champion
• 2006 37th Chess Olympics Group Woman Rank 3, Silver Medal —Preceding unsigned comment added by RybCRLSN (talk • contribs) 00:33, 11 September 2008 (UTC)

4th GM norm

I read somewhere I can't remember where that she got another GM norm by reaching the WWCC Final. Is this true or not? Thank you.--Artepnem (talk) 16:49, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

Yup that's true. It's specified as so in FIDE's norm regulation. 141.30.217.50 (talk) 13:50, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

I had a look at FIDE rules. It looks to me that the runner-up in the WWCC gets a GM norm if it involves a minimum of 9 games, although it's not totally clear. There were 6 rounds, but she played 14 games, so does this count? PatGallacher (talk) 15:46, 28 September 2008 (UTC)

Before reaching the final she played in 5 rounds. Each round had 2 classical games so thats a total of 10 games. She played 4 in the final so the total for the whoel tournament is 14.

Notable game

A lot of chess player articles have a notable game/s section. Could one be done here? I suggest Hou's win with black against Gabriel Sargissian at Corus (Group B) on the 25th of January 2008. This win was against her highest then current-rated opponent (2676) -- as opposed, say, to her win over Nigel Short (in the same tournament)then rated 2645 but had a peak rating of 2712 back in 2004.

How does this fit with other female players' record? Obviously Polgar Judit has beaten nearly all the world's best players, but other than JP has any other woman beaten a player who was then rated higher than 2676? --Artepnem (talk) 18:19, 18 September 2008 (UTC)

all the below have beaten similar opposition occasionally but mostly against such they lose. humpy koneru beat Miroshnichenko (2671). zhu chen's best result is against tiviakov (2640) at standard TC. in blitz she's beaten pono and dreev (both rated 2700+). susan polgar beat yudasin (2645) and beliavsky (2640) and also as wins against 2700+ (ivanchuk/karpov) at blitz. stefanova beat nikolic (2676) at standard TC. sebag has a win against kazimzhanov (2683). kosteniuk beat bareev (2701) though not sure if this is standard TC. she's also had wins at blitz against 2690+ opposition. cramling has beaten sokolov (2706). the list goes on. beating a higher rated opponent isn't impossible or rare. real strength is being able to hold your own against that calibre of opposition all the time. Akhc (talk) 20:13, 25 September 2008 (UTC)