In our series ‘World Champion born on this date’ we will see the success story of Xie Jun of China, the First Asian to win the World Chess Championship at Senior Level when Chess was dominated by the Europeans.
Xie Jun was born on October 30, 1970, in Baoding, China but was raised in Beijing. At the age of six, Xie began to play Xiangqi, popularly known as Chinese Chess and at 10, she became the girls’ Xiangqi champion of Beijing.
At the urging of government authorities, Xie Jun soon began playing International Chess. Despite indifferent training opportunities, she became the Chinese girls’ Chess champion in 1984. In 1988, she tied for 2-4 places at the World Junior Girls’ Championship held in Adelaide.
Xie won the right to play the challenge match for the women’s world title at the age of 20 in which she defeated Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia. Chiburdanidze, who held the title since 1978. By defeating her with a score of 8½–6½, Xie became the Asian to win the World Chess Championship Crown.
In 1993 Xie successfully defended her title against Nana Ioseliani by winning the match with a crushing 8½–2½ score.
Xie Jun lost the 1996 Women’s World Chess Championship to Susan Polgar of Hungary but regained the title in 1999 by defeating another championship finalist, Alisa Galliamova after Polgar forfeited her title by refusing to accept match conditions.
In 2000, FIDE changed the format of the World Championship to a knock-out system, and Xie won the title again, beating fellow Chinese player Qin Kanyingr 2½–1½ in the final.
A hero in China, Xie Jun became widely known for her optimism and vivid attacking style. Her success helped to popularize international chess in China and the rest of Asia. Xie Jun proved to be the first of several strong Chinese women players; the others being Zhu Chen, Xu Yuhua and Wang Lei. She was also an important member in the Chinese women’s team that won the gold medal at the 1998 Chess Olympiad in Russia.
Xie, who holds a doctorate in Psychology from Beijing University, was awarded the titles of International Arbiter and FIDE Senior Trainer in 2004. In April 2019, Xie Jun was appointed as the President of the Chinese Chess Association.
