Which title was conferred to Qiyu Zhou in 2013?
Qiyu Zhou Qiyu Zhou ( ; born January 6 , 2000 ) , also known as Nemo Zhou and her online alias akaNemsko , is a Chinese-born Canadian chess player who holds the titles of Woman Grandmaster ( WGM ) and FIDE Master ( FM ) , and a Twitch live streamer . She has been an under-14 girls World Youth Champion , a Canadian womens national champion , and a Finnish womens national champion . Zhou has a peak FIDE rating of 2367 and a career-best ranking of No . 100 in the world among women . She is the first Canadian woman to earn the Woman Grandmaster or FIDE Master titles , and has represented Canada at the Womens Chess Olympiad since 2014 . Zhou began playing chess in France at age three before growing up primarily in Finland and Canada . She gained national fame in Finland by becoming the youngest ever Finnish national chess champion , winning the under-10 open division at just five years old . While playing for Finland , she also finished runner-up in the under-8 girls division of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2008 at age eight and won the womens division of the Finnish Chess Championship in 2010 at age 10 . Zhou switched federations to Canada in 2011 . She became a Canadian girls national chess champion at the under-12 and under-14 levels in 2012 and 2013 respectively , before winning the womens national championship in 2016 . Her biggest triumph as a junior was winning the under-14 girls division of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2014 . Zhou qualified for the Woman Grandmaster title in 2016 with norms at three consecutive tournaments , two of which were in Kecskemét , Hungary , where she had also gained 300 rating points from two tournaments a year earlier . Her best victory in a game by rating was against Toms Kantāns , an International Master ( IM ) rated 2496 at the time they played . Zhou started a Twitch channel akaNemsko in 2020 , streaming chess in collaboration with other Chess.com streamers and also streaming other games as a variety streamer . She is signed with Counter Logic Gaming , and was the first chess player to sign with an esports organization . Early life and background . Qiyu Zhou was born on January 6 , 2000 to Changrong Yu and Jiehan Zhou in Jingzhou , China . Her mother has a doctorate in English linguistics and her father has a doctorate in computer engineering . Zhou began playing chess at three years old while living in Antibes in France , where her father was working at the French Institute for Research in Computer Science and Automation . She first became interested in the game after seeing a chess set while walking down the street . She subsequently joined a chess club , where her proficiency at chess was recognized from her ability to defeat 10-year-old boys despite having just a month of experience of playing the game . Zhou moved to Finland at the age of four when her father began working at the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland and the University of Oulu . In Oulu , she joined the Shakki-77 chess club and was coached by Jouni Tolonen . Within a year , she became the youngest Finnish national chess champion in history by winning the under-10 open section of the Finnish Youth Chess Championships at five years old . This achievement was widely celebrated in the media in Finland and led to her story being published in a national textbook for elementary school students . In addition to repeating as under-10 open champion for four years from 2007 through 2010 , Zhou won the Finnish Womens National Chess Championship in 2010 at the age of 10 . As the Finnish under-10 national champion , Zhou qualified to play in the World Youth Chess Championship on several occasions . She competed in the under-10 girls division in 2005 , scoring at age five . After switching to the new under-8 girls division for her next two World Youth Championships , Zhou won a silver medal at the 2008 event , which was held in Vũng Tàu , Vietnam . With Kalle Kiik as her teams coach at the competition , she scored 8½/11 , second behind only Zhansaya Abdumalik who finished with 10/11 . At Zhous first World Youth Championship , she also had the opportunity to meet leading womens chess player Hou Yifan , who she has long considered to be her biggest chess role model . When Zhou was around 11 years old , she and her family relocated to Ottawa , prompting her to switch federations from Finland to Canada in 2011 . Chess career . 2011–15 : Under-14 World Champion . Zhou earned her first FIDE rating after the 2010 World Youth Championship , starting at 1710 in January 2011 at the age of ten . Once in Canada , she had more opportunity to compete in tournaments with adults . With good performances at both the 2011 Montreal Open and the 2011 World Youth Championship that each resulted in her gaining 50 rating points , she finished the year at a rating of 1782 . Zhou continued to rise in rating over the next several years , first crossing 1900 in July 2013 a month after a good performance at the Gatineau Open . She also became a Canadian youth national champion in back-to-back years , winning the girls under-12 division in 2012 and the girls under-14 division in 2013 . Zhou had a large rating jump of nearly 200 points in 2014 . While rated 2029 in July , she scored 3½/4 at the Eastern Ontario Open against four opponents also between 2000 and 2100 , earning a rating increase of 64 points . Towards the end of 2014 , Zhou produced her best result of the year by winning the gold medal in the girls under-14 division at the World Youth Championships in Durban , South Africa . She scored 8½/11 to finish in equal first with Oliwia Kiołbasa , the only other undefeated player in the division . They were also tied on the first tiebreak criterion , having drawn against each other in the tenth round . As such , Zhou clinched the gold medal on the second tiebreak criterion , which was a Buchholz score . Her highest rating during the year was 2157 . Zhou had multiple large rating jumps and drops in 2015 . Following a rating drop of 90 points to close out 2014 , Zhou immediately regained all of those rating points the following month at the Chess in Kecskemét New Year IM event in Hungary , where she scored 6/12 against opponents with an average rating of 2302 . After losing 99 points at the Reykjavik Open , she regained 75 points at two events in Canada in May . In late May , Zhou won the girls under-18 division at the North American Youth Chess Championships in Toluca , Mexico to earn the Woman International Master ( WIM ) title . After another large rating drop at the under-20 North American Female Championships , Zhou returned to Kecskemét for two more tournaments in August . She gained 300 points between both tournaments , including 174 at the latter . As a result , she rose to a rating of 2328 , crossing both 2200 and 2300 for the first time . 2016–present : WGM and FM titles . During 2016 , Zhou was awarded the FIDE Master ( FM ) title and also qualified for the Woman Grandmaster ( WGM ) , the latter of which was not approved until the following year . She was the first Canadian woman to earn either of those titles . At the Stockholm Chess Challenge in March , she won her last-round game against Toms Kantāns , who was then an International Master ( IM ) rated 2496 and is the highest-rated player she has defeated . Later in the year , Zhou earned all three norms for the WGM title in three successive tournaments beginning in July . The first and third events were both in Kecskemét where she had also done well the previous year . She scored 7½/10 in the Chess in Kecskemét July IM tournament and then 7/10 in the Chess in Kecskemét July GM tournament . In-between , she travelled to Novi Sad in Serbia and had her best performance among these three events , scoring 7/9 at the IM Riblje Ostrvo 3 tournament , a ½ point more than what was needed for the norm . With these three results , Zhou climbed to a career-best rating of 2367 . She also became one of the top 100 women in the world by ranking and one of the top 10 girls for the first and only time in her career , ranking at exactly No . 100 among women and at exactly No . 10 among girls . Zhous last big result of the year was winning the Canadian Womens Championship by a point , a victory that qualified her to compete at the Womens World Chess Championship the following year . From 2017 onwards , Zhou began competing at fewer chess tournaments in part to focus on her studies at university . She entered the 2017 Womens World Chess Championship knockout event as the 54th seed among 64 competitors . She faced 11th seed Natalia Pogonina in the first round , and was eliminated in the two-game match 1½ to ½ after drawing the first game with black but losing the second game with white . At the end of the year , Zhou was unable to defend her Canadian womens national championship , losing by a ½ point to Maili-Jade Ouellet . Team competitions . International events . Zhou has represented Canada at international team competitions since 2014 . She made her debut at the Womens Chess Olympiad in Tromsø in Norway , where she played on the fourth board behind Yuanling Yuan , Natalia Khoudgarian , and Alexandra Botez . She scored 6½/9 as Canada finished 41st out of 136 teams with a team score of 13 points Later in the year , Zhou also took part in the under-16 Chess Olympiad in Győr , Hungary . Playing on the reserve board , Zhou did not fare well , scoring 2½/6 and losing 52 rating points . Her team overall fared better , finishing in fifth place . At the 2016 Womens Chess Olympiad in Baku in Azerbaijan , Canada produced an identical score to rank 39th out of 139 teams . Zhou played on the top board ahead of Yuan , Botez , and Lali Agbabishvili , but had a poor performance , scoring 4½/10 and losing 60 rating points . Zhous best Womens Chess Olympiad performance came in 2018 in Batumi , Georgia . Canada again produced an identical score to rank 38th out of 150 teams . Zhou played on the second board behind Agnieszka Matras-Clement and ahead of Ouellet and Svitlana Demchenko , scoring 7/10 and gaining 20 rating points . Collegiate events . Zhou has been a member of the University of Toronto chess team . She represented the team at the Ivy League Challenge that her university hosted in 2018 and 2019 at the Hart House Chess Club . Each tournament consisted of six teams , two from the University of Toronto and one each from four different universities in the United States . Zhou played on Team B in 2018 and Team A in 2019 . She fared well at both tournaments , gaining rating points on both occasions . Her team won the event in 2019 by winning all five of their matches , placing them one spot ahead of Princeton , who had won the previous year . Playing style . Zhou has a strong preference for playing 1.e4 ( the Kings Pawn Game ) compared to 1.d4 ( the Queens Pawn Game ) or other first moves . She prefers to continue 1.e4 with the Spanish Opening ( 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 ; also known as the Ruy Lopez ) . Zhou had originally started out playing the Scotch Opening ( 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 ) , before switching primarily to the Spanish Opening . She likes the variety of different lines with the Spanish Opening , and does not play with much variety beyond this opening . Streaming career . Zhou began streaming on the Twitch channel Botez Live with fellow Canadian chess players Alexandra and Andrea Botez in March 2020 before launching her own channel akaNemsko in June 2020 . She also streams on Chess.com , and has continued to collaborate with the Botez sisters and other Chess.com streamers such as Hikaru Nakamura and Levy Rozman . She has also commentated on matches and coached participants in PogChamps , a series of tournaments run by Chess.com for popular non-chess streamers that began in 2020 . Zhou accrued over 100,000 followers on Twitch within a year of her first streaming with the Botez sisters . The growth of her channel was part of a large increase in interest in online chess at the time related to the COVID-19 pandemic keeping people around the world at home , the PogChamps tournaments introducing chess to a broader streaming audience , and the popularity of The Queens Gambit miniseries . Zhou was the first chess streamer to sign a professional contract with a major esports organization , joining Counter Logic Gaming in August 2020 . Many other leading chess streamers followed suit and signed with esports organizations later in the year , beginning with Nakamura about a week later . Zhou is a variety streamer , also playing games other than chess such as League of Legends . Personal life . Zhou has been pursuing a bachelors degree at the University of Toronto with a double major in economics and statistics , and a minor in mathematics . Zhou went on leave from the university in January 2021 to focus on streaming full-time . Before university , she attended Colonel By Secondary School and has been a member of the RA Centre Chess Club . Beyond playing chess , Zhou has written chess articles for ChessBase . Some of her articles feature her own statistical analysis of the game . She has also released two instructional DVDs through ChessBase , one on tactics and the other on openings . Besides chess , Zhou also competed in pole vaulting in high school , and has a background in music and other sports as well . She can play the flute and has also played basketball and badminton . Owing to her background living in different countries , Zhou also speaks Mandarin Chinese , Finnish and French . Zhou has been nicknamed Nemo by her parents since she was three years old due to her interest in aquariums as a child , and them drawing the name from the Finding Nemo movie that was released that year . A high school friend of Zhou modified it to Nemsko . She prefers using Nemo over her given name . She created her online name akaNemsko , where aka is short for the standard also known as , because the simpler variants of Nemo and Nemsko were not available . Notable games . - Qiyu Zhou ( 2247 ) – Toms Kantāns ( 2496 ) , 2016 Stockholm Chess Challenge : Round 9 ; Sicilian defense , . Zhou analyzed the game with WIM Svetlana Agrest , a commentator for the event . Some of their discussion is included below . External links . - Qiyu Zhous website - Qiyu Zhou player profile on Chess.com - Qiyu Zhou member profile on Chess.com