Xie Jun

Trivia

• In July 2004, she qualified for the title of International Arbiter.
• Now spends most of her present time working as an official at the Beijing Sports Commission, taking care of chess players and other sports people.
• Around the end of the 1990s, she was reading for a doctorate in psychology.
• Her success did much to popularize international chess in her country and the rest of Asia.
• A hero in China, she became widely known for her optimism and vivid attacking style.
• Won the title again, beating fellow Chinese player Qin Kanying 2.5–1.5 in the final.
• In 2000, FIDE changed the format of the world championship to a knock-out system.
• At the age of 20 she won the right to challenge for the women's world title, and in 1991 she defeated Maya Chiburdanidze of Georgia, who had held the title since 1978, by a score of 8.5–6.5.
• At the urging of government authorities, she soon began playing international chess.
• At the age of six she began to play Chinese chess, and by the age of 10 she had become the girls' Xiangqi champion of Beijing.