China's chess champion torch bearer Zhu Chen said on Friday 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 torch bearer in the Doha Asian Games last year.
She also said that she will donate 20,000 yuan (2,898 U.S. dollars) 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 News Agency May 16, 2008)