Hou Yifan Joins Chessbrahs
The Montreal Chessbrahs have signed the highest-rated woman in the world: Hou Yifan.
Hou, a three-time women's world champion, will only add more star power to one of the most popular PRO Chess League teams. Will she be enough to allow Montreal to overtake their arch rivals from 2017, the Saint Louis Arch Bishops?
As the only female player in the world's top 100, Hou scored a historic victory earlier this year by winning the strong Biel tournament ahead of seasoned grandmasters such as Etienne Bacrot, Pentala Harikrishna, Ruslan Ponomariov, Peter Leko, Alexander Morozevich and David Navara.
Here's how she beat runner-up Bacrot in that tournament:
Hou Yifan has won Biel outright with 6,5/9, no tie-breaks needed! pic.twitter.com/dFf9XK6SCA
— David Llada ♔ (@davidllada) August 2, 2017
The rest of the Chessbrahs team looks familiar, with GMs Eric Hansen and Robin van Kampen, IM Aman Hambleton. Local players FM Lefong Hua and Elias Oussedik round out the squad.
Last year the "brahs" comfortably secured a spot in the playoffs in the Atlantic division, beating Norway Gnomes (with Magnus Carlsen!) along the way—although that was with Fabiano Caruana still on the team. Eventually the Canadians were eliminated by St. Louis in the semifinal.
