(CFP)

Hou Yifan, 16, won the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship in Antakya, Turkey, making her the youngest world chess champion, male or female, in history. Hou beat her teammate Ruan Lufei in the final of a four-game playoff after the regulation portion of their contest ended in a tie. Hou won 3 to 1. She is the fourth Chinese women's world champion after Xie Jun, Zhu Chen and Xu Yihua.

Hou was born in Xinhua in east China's Jiangsu Province. She showed great talent soon after she started playing chess. Before the 2010 Women's World Chess Championship, she won the first gold medal for the Chinese International Chess Team at the Guangzhou Asian Games. The Shandong team, of which she is a member, won first place in Division A of the 2010 Chinese Chess League; she was also selected the best woman chess player in the tournament.