Fabulous 5: Unshakeable Ju is champion once more

The 34-year-old Chinese language Grandmaster had simply grow to be the ladies’s world chess champion for the fifth time. The primary Chinese language and solely the fourth lady in historical past to take action – after Vera Menchik, Nona Gaprindashvili and Maia Chiburdanidze.

Although she fell behind in Recreation 2 in opposition to fellow Chinese language Tan Zhongyi, the match finally was a blowout, with Ju reeling off 4 consecutive wins. Heading into Wednesday’s recreation, Tan had the onerous job of successful 4 video games in a row to have the ability to drive tiebreaks. Whereas all Ju wanted was a draw. She retained her title 6.5-2.5 with three video games to spare.

The title match, held throughout two Chinese language cities—Shanghai and Chongqing, Ju and Tan’s hometowns respectively—noticed each gamers select starkly completely different chairs. Whereas Ju opted for a big swivel chair, Tan picked a daily, upholstered wood one. Ju towered over Tan – each visibly throughout the board and in her gameplay.

In 2018, it was a win over Tan that noticed Ju grow to be girls’s world champion for the primary time. Tan certified for this 12 months’s match after a spectacular win on the Candidates however as Ju put it, she “underperformed” on this encounter. The best way the match unfolded after Tan took an early lead—with Ju flattening her challenger like Godzilla did Tokyo—is a testomony to the now five-time girls’s world champion’s class. “I used to be enjoying increasingly more within the zone,” she stated after her win.

Together with her distinctive positional understanding and endgame mastery, Ju has been among the many most formidable feminine chess gamers for some time now. She’s additionally the reigning girls’s world blitz champion and a two-time girls’s world speedy champion. Bringing her excellent endgame method to bear, Ju pulled off the most important win of her profession on the Tata Metal Chess event in January final 12 months, defeating then-world No 6 Alireza Firouzja. It was her first-ever victory in opposition to a 2750 Elo participant. She drew in opposition to each Ding Liren and Gukesh in the identical event.

“Maybe my enjoying model is linked to my upbringing ultimately – I’m extra strong and relatively, not as aggressive,” she stated. Ju grew up within the fast-paced metropolis of Shanghai, a world monetary hub, and is just one of six feminine gamers to cross the 2600 Elo barrier. Presently, she’s the highest-rated energetic feminine participant at 2580.1 (world No 1 Hou Yifan although rated larger is essentially inactive).

“An incredible trait of Ju is her mentality,” Indian GM P Harikrishna, who was a part of Ju’s 2023 World Championship group, advised HT, “Even when she was lacking probabilities and trailing in opposition to Lei (Tingjie), she didn’t doubt herself. She simply turned up for the video games like nothing had occurred.”

It wasn’t the only occasion. Within the 2018 match she beat Kateryna Lagno on demand with Black to drive a playoff, within the 2020 match, needing solely a draw in opposition to Aleksandra Goryachkina she misplaced and went on to defend her title in a playoff.

This time round, Ju’s group comprised GMs Ni Hua – who was additionally Ding’s second for his match in opposition to Gukesh final 12 months, and Russian, Maxim Matlakov.

“She has full religion in her group. It provides you quite a lot of confidence as a second,” Harikrishna says. “We had mentioned a number of opening concepts for one of many earlier video games in the course of the 2023 match and by some means, they didn’t occur. We rechecked the concepts for Recreation 12 and so they appeared a bit dangerous particularly with match scores tied. However she took a daring name and stated ‘I’m going for it’.”

Within the run-up to the 2023 match, Harikrishna couldn’t journey to China (he accompanied her for the match) due to the pandemic, so that they did distant work on-line.

“I used to be enjoying an occasion, so I might get up actually early for classes with Ju. She might inform it was a wrestle for me and prompt I get some sleep and that we push the classes. The entire expertise —working with somebody so targeted, decided, mentally unshakeable, and at all times wanting to be taught left an imprint on me. Off the board, she’s fun-loving, and glorious at discovering the most effective locations to eat out. It’s one in every of her superpowers.”