Happened Today in the Chess World - Oct 30, 2023

LONG BEFORE DING LIREN

GM Xie Jun and World Champion Ding Liren - Source: Fide.com

Today is the birthday of former World Champion Grandmaster Xie Jun, born in Baoding, China, on October 30, 1970.
Xie grew up playing Chinese Chees, to then move on to the International version of the game. She climbed up to the top rapidly, conquering the World Champion Title in 1991 by defeating Maia Chiburdanidze, who has been Champion since 1978.
Xie kept the title until 1996 when she was defeated by Susan Polgar. When Polgar renounced the title in 1998, Xie won it again, defeating Alisa Galliamova in a match. Xie Jun has been the Champion until 2001.
The list of champions she defeated is impressive: Spassky, Smyslov, Kortschnoj, Timman, Short, Portisch, Geller, Hort, Seirawan, Tiviakov, and many others.
Xie is a talented attacking player, and she reached her peak rating of 2574 Elo points in January 2008.

Xie Jun (2495)-Nana Ioseliani (2520), Gröningen (ct-w) 1997

White to move and win:

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