Ruan Lufei facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Ruan Lufei |
|
|---|---|
| Country |  China |
| Born | October 2, 1987 Nanjing, Jiangsu, China |
| Title | Woman Grandmaster (2008) |
| FIDE rating | 2491 (August 2025) |
| Peak rating | 2503 (January 2014) |
Ruan Lufei (Chinese: 阮露斐) is a talented chess player from China. She was born on October 2, 1987. Ruan Lufei holds the special title of Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She also achieved a great feat by becoming the runner-up in the Women's World Chess Championship in 2010.
Contents
Ruan Lufei's Chess Journey
Early Success and Top Rankings
Ruan Lufei showed amazing natural talent for chess from a young age. With hard work and help from her coach, Xu Jun, she quickly became one of the best. By January 2008, she was among the top 20 female chess players in the world. Before that, from 2004 to 2007, she was on the FIDE Top 20 Girls List. She even reached her highest spot at 6th place in October 2007.
Team Championships and Medals
Ruan Lufei was a key member of the Chinese women's chess team. In 2007, her team won the First World Women's Team Chess Championship in Yekaterinburg. She also won a silver medal for her individual performance on the third board, scoring 6 out of 7 games.
In 2007, Ruan Lufei earned second place at the 12th Asian Women's Chess Championship. Her success continued in 2008 at the 2008 World Mind Sports Games in Beijing. There, she helped the Chinese Women's team win a gold medal. This was her second time being part of a team that won a World Team Championship.
Women's World Championship 2010
Ruan Lufei had an incredible journey in the 2010 Women's World Championship. She reached the final match after winning every round through tie-break games. This included beating the previous champion, Alexandra Kosteniuk. In the final, she played against her fellow Chinese player, Hou Yifan.
Many people thought Hou Yifan would win easily. Ruan Lufei had played many long and tiring matches, while Hou Yifan had an easier path to the final. In the first game of the four-game final, Ruan Lufei, playing with the black pieces, managed to draw with Hou Yifan. However, she lost the second game while playing with the white pieces.
It looked like the match was almost over. But Hou Yifan could not win the third game, giving Ruan Lufei a chance. In the fourth and final game, Ruan Lufei needed to win. She used a special opening called the Keres attack. In a very exciting game, she won, making a spectacular comeback! This sent the match into more tie-break games.
Ruan Lufei had won all her previous tie-breaks in the tournament. Some experts thought she might win the championship. The first tie-break game was a draw, but Hou Yifan won the second. Ruan Lufei drew the third, meaning the rapid tie-breaks would go to the very end. She was in a must-win situation again. However, this time she had the black pieces. Her opponent, Hou Yifan, was younger and more rested. Hou Yifan used her advantage with the white pieces to win the match and the championship title.
Even though Ruan Lufei did not win the championship, her performance was amazing. It showed everyone what a strong player she is. Her great play also earned her a Grandmaster (GM) norm, which is a big achievement in chess.
Later Career and Studies
In 2012, Ruan Lufei reached a chess rating of over 2500. This is a very rare achievement for female chess players. She also decided to retire from professional chess after the 2012 Women's Grand Prix. She wanted to focus on her academic career.
She used to play for the Jiangsu chess club in the China Chess League (CCL).
Woman Grandmaster Title
Ruan Lufei was given the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title in 2007. To earn this title, players need to achieve certain "norms" in tournaments. Ruan Lufei achieved her WGM norms at:
- The 2004 China Women's Team Championship in Jinan, China.
- The China Zonal 3.5 Women's Championship in Beijing in 2005.
- The 8th Russian Women's Team Championship in Sochi, Russia, in 2007.
Personal Life and Education
Ruan Lufei started studying at Tsinghua University in 2005. She later became a doctoral candidate, which means she was working towards a very advanced degree. She studied Accounting at the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University in the United States.
Ruan Lufei's father, Ruan Miqing, is a professor at the Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics. He was the one who taught her and trained her in chess when she was a child.
See also
In Spanish: Ruan Lufei para niños
- Chess in China
