Hou Yifan

Born on 27th February 1994, in Jiangsu, China, Hou Yifan is a former chess prodigy and a chess grandmaster who has thrice won the title of Women's World Chess Champion. She is the youngest chess player ever to win that title as well as the youngest one to qualify for the Grandmaster title.

Here are some of her career achievements:

• Participated at the FIDE Women's World Championship in Yekaterinburg and Chess Olympiad in Torino in 2006 as the youngest participant
• Became the Woman Grandmaster in January 2007, and also the youngest National Women's Champion of China, the same year in June
• Became Woman FIDE Master in January 2004
• In August 2008, Hou earned the title of Grandmaster
• Won the Women's World Championship in 2010, held in Hatay, Turkey, making her the youngest Women's World Chess Champion in the history
• Rated amongst the top 100 players in the FIDE rating list in August 2014, and thus became the third woman to be ranked in the list, following Judit Polgár and Maia Chiburdanidze
• Bagged two gold medals one in women's individual and the other in team event at the Asian Games, held in Guangzhou