In the 1990s, Chinese women chess players reached the summit of the world and men's team also achieved world class level. Chess became far more popular as a result of Xie Jun becoming the women's world champion in 1991. She made a historical breakthrough for the non-European players in this field. After retaining her title match in 1993, interest in chess was raised even further with an estimated one million chess players in China. China Women's Team won 1st place in 1998 Olympiad for the first time. At the same time, men players like Ye Jiangchuan, Zhang Zhong and Ni Hua also gradually gained excellent results in various competitions.