Xu Yuhua

Biography (1976)

Born in 1976, Xu Yuhua, riding on the success of Xie Jun, switched from the Chinese to European chess and, at the age of 16, surprised many by qualifying for the Interzonal (Djakarta, 1993) not even having a FIDE rating.Her Cinderella story ended abruptly, as she took a knock in Jakarta and did not do so well at World Junior U18 and U20 Championships. However, all these setbacks did not throw her off as Xu started to work even harder and slowly but surely moved up in the ranks. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, she scored quite a few victories in various competitions, but the most coveted title of Women's World Champion eluded her.Sometimes success comes when you least expect it. Xu Yuhua entered the 2006 World Women's Championship in Yekaterinburg after a long period of inactivity, being in her third month of pregnancy, but this very event became the pinnacle of her chess career. She smoothly navigated through a very strong field and clinched the title after beating Alisa Galliamova in the final.Xu lost her title at the following championship in 2008 after being eliminated in the second round. Three years later, she retired from tournament chess.