Content provided by British Council
Read the following text, and answer questions 1–9 below:
[1] Zhou Qiyu, also known as Nemo Zhou or by her online alias akaNemsko, is a content creator, video game streamer and model. But most notably, she is a WGM – a woman grandmaster. While her online output features everything from poker to food, the clips of the Chinese-born Canadian challenging people on the street to beat her at chess for cash reveal a mission.
[2] “My goal is to show people that chess can be fun and to encourage people to get into the game,” the 25-year-old said. “Approach it with the mentality that you might not become the next [Norwegian grandmaster] Magnus Carlsen, and that’s OK. Growing up in competitive chess, the mentality was always that if you’re not this year’s No 1-ranked player … you’re a failure. That’s not the mentality that I want people who are getting into chess to have. Growing up, I faced a lot of that, and it wasn’t fun for me.”
[3] Born in Jingzhou, in the central Chinese province of Hubei, Zhou and her family moved to France when she was three years old. They later settled in Finland, where Zhou became the youngest national chess champion by winning an under-10 section at the age of five. Then, in her mid-teens, the family relocated to Canada, and Zhou switched federations. She won the country’s women’s championship and became the first Canadian woman to earn WGM status in 2017.
[4] Zhou has spoken publicly about feeling forced to play by her parents because it raised her chances of getting into a leading university. The pressure made her fall out of love with the game. Before starting her degree in economics and statistics at the University of Toronto, Zhou told her parents she was going to stop: “I knew that I didn’t want to play chess … I had no interest in pursuing it, and when I was 17, I said I was done.”
[5] Zhou became a WGM when her rating passed 2,300. To become a grandmaster or GM, your rating must pass 2,500. But Zhou decided to take a step back from formal competitions in favour of regaining her enthusiasm.
[6] In 2020, she launched her Twitch channel, akaNemsko. Isolation and lockdowns during the pandemic encouraged many to try out new hobbies, and the Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit propelled chess into popular culture. Zhou’s audience grew. She now has more than a million followers and travels the world showcasing the game.
[7] Zhou hopes her content can help tackle issues, suggesting chess has a “classist mentality”. She highlighted an incident last year when Carlsen was disqualified for wearing jeans at the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship. Zhou also said women in the game, including herself, regularly experienced sexism. Can she help change that? “I definitely hope so,” she said. “I still get comments saying that I only won because I’m a girl or saying that I shouldn’t wear certain things.”
Source: South China Morning Post, May 3
Questions
1. In paragraph 1, what do people who beat Nemo Zhou at chess win?
2. According to paragraph 2, Zhou advises people who are just starting to play chess to …
A. try their best to become like Magnus Carlsen.
B. not worry if they cannot become the highest-ranked player.
C. focus on winning every game.
D. only play if they are naturally talented.
3. How old was Zhou when she became a national under-10 champion, based on paragraph 3?
A. younger than six years old
B. between 10 and 12 years old
C. in her mid-teens
D. information not given
4. Based on paragraph 4, why did Zhou’s parents want her to play chess?
5. In paragraph 4, Zhou decided to … before starting her university degree.
A. move to Toronto
B. study economics
C. stop playing chess
D. become a chess master
6. Find a word in paragraph 4 that means to “be completely finished with something”.
7. Decide whether the following statements about paragraphs 5 and 6 are True, False or the information is Not Given. Fill in ONE circle only for each. (4 marks)
(i) A chess player must achieve a rating of no less than 2,500 to become a WGM.
(ii) Zhou travels to different parts of the world to introduce people to chess.
(iii) Zhou plans to produce a Netflix show that will teach young children chess.
(iv) Zhou’s Twitch channel is named after a popular Netflix series about chess.
8. In paragraph 6, what global event happened in 2020 that encouraged people to try out new hobbies?
9. In paragraph 7, Magnus Carlsen was not allowed to compete because of his …
A. hairstyle.
B. gender.
C. ranking.
D. clothing.
Answers
1. cash or money (accept either answer)
2. B
3. A
4. It raised her chances of getting into a leading university.
5. C
6. done
7. (i) F; (ii) T; (iii) NG; (iv) F
8. The Covid-19 pandemic (accept all similar answers)
9. D
