Chess Grandmaster Zhu Chen to bear torch with coming baby
16/5/2008 17:33
China's chess champion torchbearer Zhu Chen said today that she's going to
run 100 meters as the 41st torch bearer on Saturday in home town Wenzhou despite
her six-month pregnancy.
"I will make it as scheduled and the moment will be
unforgettable in life," said Zhu as her husband Mohamad al-Modiahki, Qatar's
first-ever grandmaster, had been the torchbearer in the Doha Asian Games last
year.
She also said that she will donate 20,000 yuan (US$2,898) to China's
earthquake-hit Sichuan province while running in the Wenzhou leg of the Beijing
Olympic torch relay in Zhejiang province.
Zhu first gained international
prominence in 1988 when she won the World Girls Under-12 Championship in
Romania. It was the first time a Chinese player won world chess
competition.
In 2001, the 25-year-old chess star became the ninth women's
world champion, lauded by Time magazine as "a creation to be blessed with such
brains and beauty."
Zhu, becoming more family-oriented as she described
herself, said that she will stay with her kids in Qatar and focus on chess
career.
Including Zhu and her husband, dubbed as "the best Arab player in
20th century", there are three professional players in Qatar. Zhu is now the
coach and player in Qatar national chess team.
Xinhua
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