BEIJING, July 26 (Xinhua) -- Chinese rising star Hou Yifan is still far from becoming the second female chess player to reach top 10 in the world rankings, according to legendary female chess player Judit Polgar of Hungary.
"I don't know whether she can reach the top 10, but she is still far away," said the 41-year-old Polgar, who was on a three-day trip to China to promote the game and looking into potential cooperation with Chinese chess clubs.
Judit Polgar, the youngest of the renowned Polgar chess sisters, is the first and only woman to have surpassed the 2700 Elo rating barrier, reaching a career high rating of 2735 and peaking world ranking of No.8 in 2005. She was the No. 1 rated female chess player in the world from January 1989 until March 2015, when she was overtaken by Hou.
"She is talented, I always believe that if her goal wouldn't be the women's world championship, then she would be higher in her chess level, because I believe that was also one of the biggest secrets of my success: to put the bar very tall. And there is always something to look ahead," said Polgar, who has been considered as the strongest female chess player in history.
After being crowned the "Queen of Chess" three times in the women's championship in 2010, 2011 and 2013, the 23-year-old Hou has recently decided to skip women's tournaments to focus on competitions with top men's players and try to repeat the success of Polgar.
"I think she is right, there is nothing wrong with it that she turns her back to the ladies'chess and looks for new challenges. For her it's very challenging to play the men's world championship. In this format maybe she wouldn't win, but clearly she is the best (female) player at the moment," said Polgar, who lost to Hou at the Gibraltar Open in 2012 for her first defeat in 22 years to a female player since losing to Nona Gaprindashvili at the Chess Olympiad in 1990.
"She showed in quite a few games and tournaments that she can compete, she can win one game here and some there against very strong players," added Polgar, who announced retirement from competitive chess on August 13, 2014. "She is not there yet. She has talent, but there is long distance, because the closer you get to the peak, every step it becomes much, much, much harder, so she will not be able to jump now," Polgar added.
Hou, who is currently ranked at 82nd with 2666 points, still has a long way to go to surpass Polgar, the only woman to have won a game against a reigning world number one player and has defeated eleven current or former world champions in either rapid or classical chess.
"I don't know whether she can reach the top 10, but she is still far away. But if she wants to be able to be there, definitely the best thing is to play against the men's players," said Polgar.
