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She is a Chinese beauty chess queen and has won the women's chess championship three times.
In 2006, in order to pursue love, she married a Qatari chess player, renounced her Chinese nationality, and accepted polygamy.
Because this choice was angrily condemned by the whole country, but it is still considered unworthy of a man by Qataris.
Why did the young, beautiful and successful Zhu Chen choose to marry a Qatari?
After giving up her nationality for 18 years, does she regret it now that she is old and decrepit?
A generation of chess queens
On March 13, 1976, Zhu Chen was born in a Kochi family in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province.
His father was a construction engineer and his mother taught at a secondary school.
Because his parents are more open-minded and his family is wealthy, Zhu Chen has had the opportunity to cultivate various interests and hobbies since he was a child.
At the age of 7, by chance, Zhu Chen fell in love with chess and showed great talent.
Over the past year, her daughter will often find her parents to play chess with her, and even if she loses, she will not give up, but will find a way to win.
The two parents soon realized their daughter's seriousness and decided to provide her with professional and systematic training.
When he was 8 years old, his parents searched everywhere for him to teach their daughter.
Therefore, Zhu Chen has successively received the guidance of Huang Xiwen, Ye Rongguang, and Xu Jun, three chess masters.
Studying under a famous teacher, Zhu Chen's chess strength has improved by leaps and bounds.
After only 4 years, the masters agreed that she would be able to achieve good results in international competitions.
Sure enough, at the 1988 World Chess Championship held in Romania, she won the women's junior championship with a record of 9 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss.
Although it is only a junior women's champion, it is also the first world champion in the history of Chinese chess.
In this respect, Zhu Chen can be said to be better than the blue, and even FIDE President Campo Malest sent a special congratulations, believing that she will be the favorite to win the World Chess Championship in the adult group in the future.
The news of Zhuchen's championship has naturally attracted the attention of the provincial team and the national team, and after she finished the game, she was selected for the Zhejiang provincial team and the national training team.
After winning the junior championship, Zhu Chen did not continue to participate in competitions of the same age group.
After both the master and the coach saw her as the chess player of the future, everyone told her to guard against arrogance and rashness, and your future opponent will no longer be a child of the same age, but a more experienced professional chess player.
To this end, Zhu Chen conducted 2 years of closed training, just to allow himself to reach a level where he could compete with professional chess players.
In 1990, Zhu Chen won the national women's group B championship, officially became a professional chess player, and had the level of competing for the championship.
In 1992, when Zhu Chen won the national women's championship at the age of 16, it was known that the world champion was beckoning her.
And Zhuchen also lived up to expectations, winning three consecutive championships in the 1994 National Competition, Asian Youth Championship and World Championship.
In addition to her individual achievements, she also helped the Chinese women's team win three world championships and one third place in the International Chess Olympiad.
Of course, the most amazing thing is a match in 2002, when Zhu Chen, as the women's world champion, defeated the men's world champion and became the absolute first person in history.
When the title of "China's Most Beautiful Chess Queen" resounded internationally, no one expected that Zhu Chen was secretly determined to make a decision that was enough to change his fate.
Renunciation of nationality for "love".
In 2006, the news that China's most beautiful chess queen gave up her Chinese nationality and voluntarily became a Qatari citizen shocked the world.
In the world of sports, there are many examples of Chinese athletes becoming foreign nationals, but most of them are striving for better career success.
For Zhu Chen, there is no such worry, she has a lot of achievements, even if she retires at this time, she has no regrets.
As a result, it was soon discovered by the media that she became a Qatari citizen for a man named Al Mohammed.
It turned out that Al was also a chess player and had a wide reputation in the Arab region.
He is the only chess grandmaster in Qatar and the "best Arab chess player of the 20th century".
In 1994, after Zhu Chen came to Malaysia, he won several men's grandmasters in a row, including Al.
The two were born in the same year, so when Zhu Chen defeated Al, he didn't have much of a better impression of him.
However, when the match was over, she saw Al sitting alone by the pool, sad.
In the dim light, Al was deeply attracted by the melancholy eyes and the handsome face of his youth.
After 6 years of confrontation on the field and off-court interactions, the two began to have feelings for each other.
In 2000, Zhuchen and Al Mohammed officially married and gave birth to two daughters.
This marriage was witnessed by no friends, because Zhu Chen knew that marrying as them would inevitably bring about nationality disputes.
The outside world has always known that the two are in love, but most people think that they will definitely not get together.
In the eyes of the Chinese, Al is not worthy of Zhuchen, after all, Zhuchen has won many world championships and defeated countless men's grandmasters, while Al does not have dazzling honors in the professional arena, and can only be regarded as somewhat famous in the Arab region.
And Zhu Chen looks bright and moving, but Al has a big stubble, especially the handsome of the past, he looks very old, and it is difficult to say that he is a good match in terms of appearance.
In the Arab region, the locals believe that Zhuchen is not worthy of Arles.
Because they think that Al has noble Qatari royal blood and has a good reputation in Qatar, and Zhuchen is just an ordinary girl, and all her honors are automatically ignored.
What's more, Zhu Chen always shows his head and wears the beautiful clothes of modern women, which in the eyes of rigid and traditional Arabs, is a manifestation of revealing clothes and not abiding by women's morals.
However, the more such opposition there is, the more the two fall in love with each other, as if they were Romeo and Juliet in the play.
In fact, the huge opposition also made the two doubt about this love, but after the storm, the two of them firmly chose each other again.
In fact, Zhuchen's family has always been very worried about this, and everyone knows what obstacles the two will face when she actually marries Al.
Especially as a woman, Zhu Chen, in the subconscious of world culture, basically has to live with a man, and the outside world has long been worried about her changing nationality in the future.
In 2005, because Jinan held the first "Torch Real Estate Cup" China Chess Professional League, Al joined the Jiangsu team as a foreign aid.
At this time, many people already felt that it would be a good choice for Al to join China with Zhuchen.
At first, Zhu Chen also had such thoughts, but he soon realized that this was a fantasy.
After all, all of Al's honor and status are concentrated in the Arab region, and it is simply unrealistic for him to abandon everything and come to China.
Public opinion turmoil
In 2006, after the family experienced 6 years of separation, Zhu Chen finally decided to give up her Chinese nationality and follow her husband to settle in Qatar.
As soon as the news came out, there was a scolding in the country, and when the family opposed their daughter's decision, they had a premonition that there would be such a day.
Despite being mentally prepared, accusations from all sides still caused headaches for the family.
The most difficult thing for families to accept is all kinds of gossip and unwarranted rumors from netizens.
Because they feel that Al is not worthy of Zhu Chen in terms of appearance or talent, many people think that Zhu Chen married into a wealthy family because of the other party's family property in the Middle East.
And Zhu Chen himself once said in public that he persuaded his best friend to marry her husband too.
In fact, she had already discussed with Al before she got married, and the other party agreed to be monogamous and live as an equal between men and women.
Still, the outside world is not less worried.
Because polygamy is legal in the Middle East, the so-called agreement between the two is not reliable.
As the saying goes, "a man's oath is the most unreliable", in case Al really wants to marry again in the future, Zhu Chen has no way to stop it.
In this respect, it is quite unwise for Zhu Chen to give up his position in China for love.
Another theory is that the reason why Zhu Chen renounced his Chinese nationality was because he found that he was getting older and his chess skills were not as good as before, and he began to decline.
In order to ensure her future life, she chose to become a Qatari citizen, and some people even said that she was bought by Qatari officials.
In this regard, the family felt that it was too unfair to their daughter.
After all, Zhu Chen has won countless honors for China at his best age.
Now that she is about to start thinking about her life, it is disappointing that she has been so unjustly abused and smeared.
Zhu Chen's sister Zhu Zhen said that the honors she has won over the years are like a tight spell on Sun Wukong's head, making her unable to make choices like an ordinary person.
What's going on now?
Perhaps because chess was not much of a concern, the many rumors about Zhuchen quickly fell silent.
After joining Qatar International, she won the women's World Series again the following year.
But since then, due to her age, Zhuchen's ranking has not been as good as year by year, and she has gradually begun to turn to smaller events and some promotional activities.
Over the years, Zhu Chen has traveled between China and Qatar, most often returning to his hometown of Wenzhou, Zhejiang, and occasionally participating in promotional events in Hangzhou.
At the Asian Games in September 2023, the couple appeared in public with their children.
This time, she brought her eldest daughter, who is 15 years old, to a tennis tournament.
This appearance surprised netizens very much, and the 46-year-old Zhu Chen's face was old and haggard.
The image of jasper in the small family in Jiangnan no longer exists, and the smile is more reluctant.
Netizens have speculated that she may not have been happy over the years, otherwise she would not have aged so fast.
As the saying goes, if a person drinks water, he knows whether he is warm or cold.
Only we know what kind of life we live, and there is never much meaning behind the happiness that is displayed in front of the world.