finalist for the Women's World Championship title, earning an automatic International Master (IM) title and a "runner-up 9-game grandmaster norm", her fourth GM norm overall. Her performance rating for the entire championship was 2536. Hou participated at the first World Mind Sports Games in Beijing from 3–18 October as a member of the Chinese team, winning the bronze medal in the Women's Individual Blitz event, the gold medal in the Mixed Pairs Rapid event (with Ni Hua), the silver medal in the Women's Teams Blitz event, and the gold medal in the Women's Teams Rapid event. In mid-late October, playing board one for team Spartak Vidnoe in the thirteenth European Club Cup held in Kallithea, Greece she scored 2/4 (+1 −1 =2, TPR 2448) helping her team to a second-place finish. Very shortly thereafter she played in the Cap d'Agde Rapid tournament from 24 October to 1 November, losing to former world champion Anatoly Karpov in a tiebreaker match at the end of the qualifying stage, despite winning the second tiebreak game. At the 38th Chess Olympiad in Dresden from 12 to 25 November, she played at the number 1 board in the Chinese women's team. Although her team did not win a prize, she still placed third in the individual board prize. She played in every round with a final result of 7½/11 (+5, =5, −1, TPR 2563). At the 79th FIDE Congress, held on 16–26 November 2008 in Dresden, Germany, her GM title was approved making her the 27th Chinese Grandmaster. Her three approved GM norms were: Aeroflot Open Tournament A1 in Moscow, February 2008; score 4½/9 (requirement=4½ points) World Junior Chess Championship in Gaziantep, August 2008; score 9/13 (requirement=8 points) World Women's Chess Championship in Nalchik, September 2008; reached the final round (equivalent to a 9-game GM norm) 2009 Hou Yifan competed in the Grandmaster Group B of the 71st Corus chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee from 16 January to 1 February 2009. She was seeded twelfth out of fourteen players and finished joint ninth–tenth with a performance rating of 2620. Between 7–19 March, she finished third in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix Tournament in Istanbul, scoring 8/11 (+6=4–1, TPR 2649). From 12 to 23 May, she competed at the 8th Asia Continental Chess Championship at the Subic Exhibition and Convention Center, Subic Bay Freeport Zone in Olongapo City, Philippines. She scored 7½/11 with a 2640