She changed the history of women's chess

THERE IS no river in Beijing. She would have been happy if there was one. But there is a river in the middle of the Chinese chessboard. Xie Jun swam across it early in her life and moved to the more traditional variety of chess, and has lived to celebrate that decision. She made a big splash in 1991, when she did a `Kramnik' to Maya Chiburdanidze in the World title match.

Last week in New Delhi she won her fourth World championship. This time her triumph was as expected as an Australian cricket team winning the Test. Throughout the tournament, only one woman played that kind of chess. She lives in riverless Beijing.

Xie Jun played splendidly for three weeks, remaining unbeaten after 16 games. She was new to the knock-out system, but she got used to it pretty soon. ``Personally I would prefer the old system,'' she said at the end of the championship.

In the very first round, she was stretched to the tie-breakers by a determined and elegant Svetlana Matveeva of Russia. But the World champion asserted her supremacy within the first set of rapid games (of 25 minutes each). She was taken to the tie- breakers only once more, by another Russian, Ekaterina Kovalevskaya in the semifinals.

Xie Jun had no real trouble in the final against compatriot Qin Kanying, the 26-year-old who surprised everyone at New Delhi. There was, however, one problem for the champion. Kanying's present trainer, Peng Xiaomin, was her second earlier. But she overcame that difficulty in style. She worked harder on the openings - interestingly all the four games were Ruy Lopez, but different variations - and in the crucial first game, she came up with a novelty (a move that was not played before in a similar situation). That move (17. c4) had a big impact on the outcome of the match. Kanying, though she tried hard and fought grimly, could never recover.

Xie Jun's domination of the World champion was complete. She came up with the right moves at the right times right through the tournament. For instance, in the first rapid game of the semifinals, when Kovalevskaya tried to put her under pressure with a premature attack on the king-side, she produced a brilliant rook move and set up a victory. She had taken half of her time on that move, but after it was executed, there was no escape for the Russian, one of the major surprises of the World championship.

``Yes, I liked that win, but the one I liked more was that win against Natalia Zhukova,'' she said. She was referring to her win in the first game of the quarterfinals against the talented Ukrainian with the help of a brilliant knight sacrifice.

``Xie Jun was very solid and consistent,'' said Nana Alexandria, the Georgian who twice challenged for the World title. ``She definitely deserved to be the World champion again.''

``Xie Jun's games were really impressive at the World championship,'' said Bhagyashree Thipsay, the Indian veteran who put up a determined fight before losing to the Netherlands' higher rated Peng Zhaoqin in the first round. ``I was watching the games live on the internet, and was able to guess the moves of most players correctly. Even the moves made by the men players did not surprise me at all. But Xie Jun was highly unpredictable; often I failed to guess her moves.''

In New Delhi she was also proving a point to Zsuzsa Polgar, who had defeated her in the World title match in 1996. The Hungarian refuses to consider her as a World champion and there has been a war of words on the internet between the two. ``I am ready to play her any moment, and I deeply regret that I did not get a revenge match against her,'' she told this writer during the party following the closing ceremony of the World championship.

That loss in Spain was the only occasion when she lost her crown since 1991. She, 21 and unheard of, had shocked the world when she dethroned the five-time champion Maya. ``It took me a while to believe that I had indeed become the World champion,'' she said. ``My whole life changed after that. I was recognised on the streets, people wanted to congratulate me. It felt great.''

Xie Jun defended her title in 1993, when she crushed Nana Isoliani, another Georgian (``Yes, that was my easiest win in World championship''). Then last year in Shenyang she regained the title, overcoming Russia's Alisa Galliamova in a gruelling battle, which ended in a 8.5-6.5 victory for her after 15 games (``That was pretty tough and easily my most difficult match'').

Xie Jun has men's Grandmaster title and has an impressive rating of 2568. More importantly, she deserves that rating and plays like a true Grandmaster.

She was advised to take up chess seriously when one of her earlier trainers found that she was talented. When she was 14, she won the Chinese national junior championship, winning all her games. She tied for the second place in the World junior championship in 1988 in Adelaide and never looked back.

She also changed the history of Chinese women's chess. She inspired many young girls to take up the game and today China is the undisputed super power in women's chess.

``Now my task is much easier,'' she said. ``There are so many talented girls back in China to take the game forward. I am even thinking of retiring,'' she said, flashing that innocent smile again.

But, she was just joking (the lady has a fine sense of humour). The female chess players of the world will have to wait for some more time before they could start breathing a bit easier.

P. K. AJITH KUMAR

Kozhikode

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