In November 2022 this column wrote that a then little-known 12-year-old Chinese girl, Lu Miaoyi, could join Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan among the top three women players in chess history: the world elite. It has taken a while, but the evidence is mounting.
Lu’s mother, Xu Yuanyuan, was Chinese women’s champion in 2003 and a double world girls champion. Lu learned chess at three, got her first Fide rating at five, and was 2200, master level, at 10. At 12, she defeated Armenia’s No 3-ranked woman, Lilit Mkrtchian, in a brilliant 18-move sacrificial miniature.
