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ASSOCIATED PRESS
World chess champion Hou Yifan of China holds the trophy at an award presentation ceremony of the FIDE World Chess Championship in 2016. This week the world’s top female chess player gave up her last game at a major tournament to protest being paired against mostly female players while male contestants outnumbered them.
MADRID >> The world’s top female chess player has given up her last game to protest being paired against mostly female players at a major tournament where male contestants outnumbered them.
The dramatic loss of Chinese grandmaster and world champion Hou Yifan came only five moves into the final round of the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival against opponent Babu Lalith of India.
Hou later apologized to fans in a video on the event’s website, but said she was upset by the “unbelievable and weird pairings” after playing against seven women in ten rounds.
“I think it’s unfair, not only for me, but for the other women players,” the 22 year-old player often referred as the “Queen of Chess” said.
Tournament founder Brian Callaghan said he understood Hou’s concerns, but said the pairings were “100 percent correct.”
“I’m sorry for Yifan because I think she let herself down,” Callaghan said in the same video. “This is what I call a bad day in the office.”
Hou spoke earlier this year against the different rules by the World Chess Federation in women and men’s tournaments and pledged to attend only open events in the future.
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