Sixteen-year old Hou Yifan of China (pictured above) is the new FIDE Women's World Chess Champion. She defeated countrywoman Ruan Lufei in a 3-1 rapid play-off to day in Hatay, Turkey to win the title.The playoff consisted of 4 games played at a time control of Game in 25 minutes plus a 5 second increment for each move made. Congratulations to both Hou Yifan and Ruan Lufei for making it to the Championship, and congratulations to Hou Yifan for being the youngest Woman ever to become World Champion, breaking the mark held by GM Maia Chiburdanidze of the Republic of Georgia had previously held the record for youngest champion. Maia won the title in 1978, when she was 17, and held it until 1991, when she was defeated by Xie Jun of China.Here is the crosstable which shows the results for the final match:
You can read more about Hou Yifan's victory today by going to these websites:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/25/world/asia/25chess.html
http://players.chessdom.com/yifan-hou/yifan-hou-world-chess-champion
http://www.chessvibes.com/reports/hou-yifan-13th-women-world-champion/
Here are the moves from all the games of the Final match which have been posted online to this time:
Source of image:http://www.chessville.com/News/index.htm
