Chess match loss, but recognition won
By Bob Bauder
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Saturday, December 25, 2010
Lufei Ruan lost the woman’s world chess championship Friday, but acquaintances in Pittsburgh say she gained international recognition for herself and the city with her remarkable climb to the tournament final.
“The whole chess world is stunned right now,” said Alexander Shabalov, 47, a four-time U.S. chess champion from Squirrel Hill.
“Basically, she jumped way over her head. She was pretty much a few moves away from becoming a world champion, which is every chess player’s dream. I’m sure it’s just a heartbreaker for her.”
Ruan, 23, a doctoral student at Carnegie Mellon University’s Tepper School of Business, lost the title in a tie-breaker to chess prodigy Hou Yifan, 16. Both played for the Chinese team in the tournament held in Hatay, Turkey.
In an e-mail, Ruan said she was happy to have performed well but exhausted after playing for nearly a month with one day’s rest.
“I think there are three reasons why she beat me,” Ruan said. “Firstly, she is really a good player, and unlike me, she plays chess every day. Secondly, I played tie-break in every round, so I have played for 20 days with only one day rest. Finally, she has two coaches here, but I’m fighting alone. My coach is in China.”
Kevin Mo, 15, a chess master from Franklin Park, said Ruan mainly competed against professional players. He found it remarkable that she beat all but one. Mo lost a game to Ruan last month and said he followed her every move in the tournament through the Internet.
“For her to balance studying and playing in the tournament, and for her to get this far is quite impressive,” said the 10th-grader at North Allegheny High School. “It’s good for chess in Pittsburgh. We now have a world championship contender here in Pittsburgh.”
Source: http://www.pittsburghlive.com
Ruam Lufei is indeed a remarkable lady. I seldom hear of her until lately. To be honest she could have seal the match before the tie breaks. She is the only player to play in all tie breaks and she did beat Kostiniuk,Harika and Zhao, all very strong player. Now, she can go and concentrate on her studies. Good luck Lufei!
This humble but highly intelligent girl simply crushed Kosteniuk, a pompous self inflated ego maniac.
Congratulations from Pittsburgh!!
This is yet another performance that could become the stuff of chess legend.
Chess needs people that possess not only playing strength but also project character – something more than just computer enhanced efficiency.
Ruan Lufei is a player whose story is worth remembering.
Anonymous,
Kosteniuk is a deserving champion. She has every right to use her achievements to promote herself. Finally, she is a very beautiful girl. We all love em’, don’t you?
Having said that, Ruan Lufei was my favorite (after Koneru Humpy lost), simply because she is a grad student like myself. It is extremely hard work, and I’ve felt guilty just playing a few quick blitz games here and there when I should be studying.
Please leave Kosteniuk alone. She is both highly intelligent and beautiful. This is good for the game of chess. Chess needs to be attractive.
There is so many things you can do for chess… write poetically about it, praise its stars who work so hard at it every day to put up a show for us, who work hard to make chess more popular.
Please do yourself a favor, do not waste your time demeaning someone else’s achievement. No I’m not necessarily a fan of Kosteniuk, and as my recent blogs show au contraire, I’m a huge of fan of Koneru Humpy!!
Please be happy, or content. Whichever suits you.
Alexander Shabalov is 43-years old (born in Riga in 1967)
I agree with Kenny G on Kosteniuk, Please stop bashing her. Alexandra Kosteniuk was a good champion and did promote chess to the world. She was also very fair in her commentaries of her opponents.Yes, she did promote herself a bit – well she did become a world champion! Also, she has a slight ego and this how most champions are. That is how they are successful.
Asians are usually reserved, modest and humble in comparison with westerners. Some even find hard accepting complements!
Hou Yifan, Koneru, Ruan Lufei, Anand etc are humble and modest in their achievements. This is how most Asians are which can be good or bad.But Asian are changing!!
Yes, leave Kosteniuk alone. If she wants to inflate her own ego or makes a fool of herself for dissing other great female players then let her. No need to chime in. She’s smart.
She knows that she’ll never match other great champions on the board so she tries to make herself as controversial as possible to draw attention to herself by posing near naked and making outrageous statements.
It’s a great marketing ploy. Genius. Kudos to her team.
Ruan Lufei’s run in the 2010 Women’s World Chess Championship will long be remembered as a stand of outstanding success and courage. She nearly did it — she nearly won the title — and, as she said – without a coach, financial support and without playing much chess here in the U.S., as she has been concentrating on her studies. That speaks volumes to me about her abilities and her fighting spirit. She would have been a worthy champion, indeed. Ruan has earned my respect, and that is not easy to do.
As for those who dis GM Alexandra Kosteniuk – oh please. Chances are you can’t play your way out of a paper sack and have no idea of the amount of time and effort it takes to achieve and then maintain a top level of chess play. GM Susan Polgar did it for years, and other top female GMs too, but it’s no easy task and there are always hungry youngsters nipping at your heels. Two of the three Polgar sisters have retired from playing chess on the professional circuit, as well as many other top female (and male) players over the years (does anyone remember Patrick Wolff, for instance, or Anna Hahn), and they have moved on to other more lucractive endeavors. There is absolutely nothing wrong with our top chessplayers – male and female – promoting themselves in order to make a living. Earning a world title is an enormous accomplishment and they should be justly proud of such an achievement. Would anyone take cheap shots at Carlsen for appearing as a young urban dude in those clothing commercials? Of course not – and he has NOT earned a world champion title. So lay off the ladies. Kosteniuk was a fine Women’s Champion who did much for charity during her reign as women’s champion and, like other women champions before her, she’s not going to just disappear into the ether, you can be sure of that. She has a lot of chess left to play, and goals to go after and, hopefully, achieve. We should all be supporting our outstanding female players, particularly here in the US where they have a tough time making a living as a professional chess player. We need more role models like Krush, Zatonskih, Abrahamian, Zenyuk, Susan Polgar and Alexandra Kosteniuk, not piss-ant fights about who is who’s favorite. Both Polgar and Kosteniuk serve on the Women’s FIDE Committee and have advanced initiatives to help female chessplayers around the world. We need more of these initiatives and more positives to promote female chessplayers, not these silly-ass fights. Sorry for the profanity, but this ridiculous silliness and useless name-calling just ticks me off so much. Women chessplayers are a minority – we need to stick together and help each other however we can.
Jan Newton
Goddesschess
Ruan Lufei achieved a greal deal with little to no support from the Chinese government, an accomplishment in the chess world that will long be remembered. She has earned my respect, and would have been a worthy champion if she had won the title.
For those of you here who seem to delight in taking cheap shots at worthy female chess champions, I suggest you save your venom for those who deserve scorn, such as the current Fearless Leader of FIDE, and leave the ladies alone. Each and every one of the women who has earned a world champion title, including the owner of this worthy chess blog, GM Susan Polgar, is deserving of our utmost respect and support. We need more of such female chessplayers, not fewer, particularly here in the US. Those of you who waste time and energy dissing a top female player – get a life, heh? We now have two former women’s chess champions living in the United States, and that is a good thing. We should be thinking of ways of making the most of that fact and developing marketing strategies to improve the lot of female chessplayers everywhere. A chess champion using her (or his) celebrity is a good thing, not a bad thing.
Jan Newton
Goddesschess
Long live Lufei! Simple and sweet. Her path has not gone without disdain by the media, yet I say she is great!! A truly great achievement.