Being the reigning and four-time women’s world chess champion matters to China’s Ju Wenjun but she is unequivocal about the impact Ding Liren winning the men’s title has had on the game back home. “He created history,” said Ju with a broad smile. “He played brilliantly to win in the match. I think many people will want to study chess in China now.”
Ding, 30, beat Ian Nepomniachtchi to become the first Chinese to win the men’s world championship in April. For China, that completed a sequence of achievements, said Ju. “It had been the dream of China to first have women world champions, then women’s team champions (they won it in 2022) and now this.”
But did Magnus Carlsen not defending his title take some sheen off the achievement? Ju adjusted the gold-framed round Sarina Wiegman-like glasses, let the question hang in the air inside the Bhasha Bhawan auditorium at the National Library complex here before saying: “You never know what would have happened if he did. There are many things you cannot predict. After Magnus opted out, Ding got his chance and he made it.”
No points for guessing that Ding is Ju’s favourite player as well. Not long after Ding’s $2.2m title fight, the 32-year-old Ju defended her world crown. Like she has been since 2018. In an all-Chinese affair played in Shanghai and Chongqing in July, Ju came back strongly to beat Lei Tingjie to win a cheque of $334,000. Dating back to 1927, she is only the sixth woman with four world titles.
Asked whether her effort was being undermined in all this praise for Ding, Ju simply said: “China has six women world champions.” It’s a list that starts with four-time winner Xie Jun in 1991 and has Hou Yifan, also a four-time world champion.
And now they have the men’s title too. That’s some progress for a country that had banned chess from 1966-76 because it was a mark of decadent capitalist culture. That shifted from around 1975 with the launch of the “Great Dragon Project” which aimed to transform China into a chess playing country. One where chess would be more popular than xiangqi, the local game also known as Chinese chess.
China now has 45 GMs after the sport began to be spread through national development centres. “The sports bureaus, the council of the city where you were born, the province, they all help in developing players,” said Ju, the top seed who finished runner-up behind Divya Deshmukh in the rapid event of the Tata Steel Chess here on Saturday. It fetched her $6,000; Deshmukh got $10,000.
Also helping is the Chinese Chess League. “It gives many young and promising players a chance to play. And become strong internationally. I think it is a very important tournament. Many people have improved their level from Chinese Chess League,” she said.
It is an annual 10-team professional competition that usually runs from April to November. Ju plays for Shanghai. She also has a degree in economics and finance from Shanghai University.
It was at the league that she first got to know GM Pentala Harikrishna, who assisted her in the last world championship. “He played for Shanghai too and we have known each other for many years. Two months ago, the team decided to invite him as a coach. He helped not only with my openings but in the middle and endgames,” she said.
Harikrishna is also in town for an Asian Games camp and will play in the open section of the Tata Steel tournament from Tuesday.
