The people behind the game
Hou Yifan
The youngest women’s world champion, winning at sixteen. Her precise, versatile play carried her to four championship victories.
- Born
- 1994
- Country connections
- China
At the board
The games. The ideas.
Explore classic encounters and championship battles. Play every move, or jump straight to the moments that tell the story.
2016 · Women’s world championship · Game 9
The title returns to Hou
The ninth and final game of the 2016 championship. Hou’s queenside passed pawns decide a queenless position.
Read the position
Every move sets the scene.
Use the controls to explore the full game, or select an annotated moment below. Each explanation describes the position immediately after its highlighted move.
Complete move list 46 moves
The journey
A remarkable path.
Hou won the women’s world championship in 2010, 2011, 2013 and 2016. These four victories span three separate reigns: the 2011 result was a successful defense. She earned the grandmaster title in 2008, at fourteen. [1]
From the photographic archive Explore the championship record →The championship record
Time with the crown.
- 2010–2012, 2013–2015, 2016–2017Women’s world championship
Reigns are periods of title ownership, not a count of championship victories. Open-ended reigns reflect the record checked on 18 October 2026.
From the archive
A life in photographs.
Sources & credits
Biographical details and title records checked . Country connections describe the player’s career and background, rather than a live federation listing.
Portrait: Andreas Kontokanis from Piraeus, Greece · CC BY-SA 2.0. Displayed in monochrome and cropped.
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