China: About Its History and Relations to Chess
Hello there!
So I was scrolling through some chess forums looking for a topic for my next blog when I saw a comment reading "...maybe on each day you can put a blog and write about each country's one best grandmaster and tell about their tactics..." This was an interesting idea, so I decided to write about some countries and their relations to chess, and of course their best players.
As this is my home country, I think I will be starting with China, home to Wei Yi, Ding Liren, Hou Yifan, and many other great players.
China is very strong in terms of chess, with 45 grandmasters and 16 female grandmasters, and I think they have some players worth commenting on. China has 7 grandmasters in the top 100 chess players in the world, and also has one at #107, one at #115, and one at #133! They are only behind two countries right now, tied in third most grandmasters in the top 100! The Chinese also have a notable chess variant that I would like to share. Actually, chess was banned in China from 1966-1974! However, the game has seen a surge in popularity, and now China is the crushing powerhouse that we all know today!
Today, I am going to introduce many Chinese chess topics: players, tournaments, and even an ancient variant that helped shape the beautiful game we know and love today! So yeah, China has a big role in modern chess, and I'm going to tell you about that today.
Let's get into it!
CHINESE TOURNAMENTS: CHINESE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
Games similar to chess, like Xiangqi, are said to have been invented in China around 2,000 years ago. Xiangqi probably came from the Indian variation of chess, Chaturanga, as China and India are both in Asia and quite close to each other. Xiangqi quickly spread across East China, influencing many other variants of chess, including perhaps the Japanese variant, Shogi.
Xiangqi included unique pieces such as the 砲 (cannon), 仕 (advisor), 相 (elephant) and 俥 (chariot). It is said that it was invented by the Chinese military strategist Han Xin, who did so to boost the morale of his soldiers. The game is associated with the Chu-Han Contention, a period in Chinese history. In Xiangqi, the Chinese characters on top of the pieces tell you which piece is which.
Xiangqi is a very important part of Chinese history. There are many tournaments, and even websites where you can play the famous game! Like chess, it has different pieces, different strategies, and a board. Tell me about the similarities!
CHINESE PLAYERS
Which country can play chess without players? None, of course! If there were no good chess players from China, what would be the point of writing this blog? That is why I am going to introduce you to some of the best players China has ever produced -- and there are a lot, so I had to pick the very very best. Well? Hurry up and scroll down!
CHINESE PLAYERS
1. DING LIREN
Ding Liren was born on the 24th of October 1992, in Wenzhou, China. He learnt chess at just four years old and quickly grew to love it. After growing up, he won 3 Chinese Chess Championships and one World Championship, which made him the 17th World Chess Champion.
In 2023, Ding was up against Ian Nepomniachtchi (I'm not sure I spelt that correctly
). The world championship was extremely close, and had to come down to rapid tiebreaks after Ding and Nepo tied 7-7 in the classical format.
Luckily, Ding won the fourth and final rapid tiebreak game (after three draws) and took home the trophy for the first time (it was also China's first time), also receiving the mega prize of $2.5 M USD.
The meaning of life should be in those special, sparkling moments.
Ding Liren
Yes, Ding Liren got those "special, sparkling moments", and in a very fancy manner. Before we continue on, I would like to include the final game between Ding and Nepo, which decided the championship and is absolutely beautiful and full of skill. Here it is:
Great win, Ding! Unfortunately for him, however, he lost to his challenger last year in 2024, Gukesh Dommaraju. Now, he has not been in tournaments for months, claiming to be "sick", although it is probably just depression from his loss. Ding has not returned to chess for a while, but instead started something different.
“We are delighted to announce that chess GM Ding Liren has officially signed with LGD Gaming Club and will be fighting alongside us in the future,” LGD Gaming said.
This is true; Ding Liren will take a break from chess following his loss against Gukesh Dommaraju, and has signed with the Esports company LGD Gaming. Ding, you were a wonderful player to look up to and say "Wow". We will miss you dearly.
2. WEI YI
Wei Yi was born on the 2nd of June 1999, becoming the 9th youngest grandmaster later on in his life at the age of 13 years, 8 months and 23 days. He was born in city Wuxi, in the Jiangsu province of China.
Wei Yi began playing chess at the age of 5, enrolling in many chess classes in kindergarten and participating in many chess tournaments starting from the age of 6.
Wei Yi is best known for what many people call "Wei Yi's Immortal", which he played in Danzhou in 2015 against Lazaro Bruzon Batista, and is basically the Immortal Game 2.0. Starting from that year, Wei Yi also won three consecutive Chinese Chess Championships, which I'll explain more of later. Anyways, here is Wei Yi's Immortal, played as masterfully as a modern-day Tal:
After his Immortal Game, Wei Yi's chess strength only grew. As of July 24 2025, his FIDE rating is 2748, the ninth highest in the world along with grandmaster Anish Giri. Who was once a chess prodigy is now a full-grown grandmaster, showing his skills to the world. Wei Yi's highest rating was in October last year, at 2763.
Right now, Wei Yi is one of the strongest chess talents in the world, leading China in FIDE rating. Wei Yi is truly a force to be reckoned with, even by the strongest players in the world; he is even best friends with Ding Liren!!
Wei Yi is indeed one of those "strongest players in the world" right now, and still holds the record for the youngest person to ever reach 2700 in rating.
3. HOU YIFAN
Hou Yifan was born on the 27th of February 1994, in Xinghua, China. After learning chess at a young age, she quickly became a grandmaster at the incredible age of 14 years, 6 months, and 2 days, becoming the youngest female to ever qualify for the title.
Hou Yifan quickly became a force to be reckoned with, winning the Women's World Championship a whopping four times, winning the first one at just 16 years old!
Hou Yifan is best known for her skill at chess, even drawing against World #1 Magnus Carlsen several times! However, her best game was probably against Rafael Vaganian in 2017. Although she was stronger than her opponent, at the rating of 2666 (triple 6 is lucky, as they say in China), she still had to play well. Which she did.
Here is Yifan's game against Vaganian, where she played with a pinpoint 99% Accuracy:
Although Hou Yifan is now retired, she is still very strong at chess, holding her title as the second highest rated female player to ever live after Judit Polgár, with a peak rating of 2686. She does not participate in OTB tournaments anymore. However, ever so often, she shows up online and mashes the other female grandmasters to meatballs, showing them who is still the top dog.
Hou Yifan is arguably the best female chess player, though more than many would argue that it is Judit Polgár, which is also reasonable. Nevertheless, she also has some other achievements outside of the chess world.
In 2020, Yifan became the youngest ever professor at Shenzhen University, where she is the Professor at the school of Physical Education. Currently, she is working as a lecturer at Peking University, where she continuously grows the profile of chess.
Yifan is really a player that even male grandmasters will have a challenge against. Currently, that belief has not wavered, and she stands as the strongest female grandmaster. With a world ranking of #96, she is currently the first female to appear on the rankings, where she outranks many male grandmasters!
CHINESE CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP
The Chinese Chess Championship is an annual chess competition held in China. It was founded in 1957, and in that same year, 22 players participated, coming from 10 provinces all over China. The winner was Zhang Fuizhang.
Since then, the Chinese Chess Championship has grown immensely. The 2024 competition was held in Xinhua (no, not the place Hou Yifan was born) from May 6 to May 17 and were two 11-round 12-player round-robins, one for men and one for women. The time control was 90 minutes for the first forty moves, and then 30 minutes for the rest of the game. For the entire game, the increment was 30 seconds.
All three of the Chinese players I have mentioned (Ding, Wei Yi and Yifan) have participated and won the Chinese Chess Championship sometime in their life. Ding won it in 2009, 2011 and 2012; Wei Yi won it in 2015, 2016 and 2017; and Yifan won it in 2007 and 2008.
The most recent winners of the Chinese Chess Championship are Wang Yue for the men and Lu Miaoyi for the women. Congrats! Wang Yue, although falling behind now, was the first ever Chinese player to break into the top 10 highest-rated players in the world, and he will always be remembered for that. Lu Miaoyu is an up-and-coming 14-year-old star who has already stunned many! Well deserved, both of you!
By the time this blog is published, The Chinese Chess Championship 2025 will have finished too, but at the time I am writing this, it has not.
Although I am not completely sure, I am aware that Wang Yue did not win again this year. Both Ding Liren and Hou Yifan are not participating, with Ding having joined LGD Gaming and Yifan having retired, and neither is Wei Yi.
But regardless of whether the best Chinese players participate, The Chinese Chess Championship is a solid competition that is challenging to win, one that takes sweat and dedication to come out on top of. It will always be a masterclass tournament with no easy win, and will always be that.
As you have read, China has a deep connection to chess now, and even had a similar variation of it long before actual chess! I hope you enjoyed reading this. You've learnt about Ding Liren, Wei Yi, and Hou Yifan, and have undoubtedly read mentions to other Chinese players such as Wang Yue. A large portion of my sources were from Chess.com. You can find out the top 100 chess players in the world here, which is also where I found out that China had 7 players in the top 100. The comments in each and every game were written by me, as well as the whole body of the blog. Most of the information in this blog was confirmed by websites, so I don't think there will be any mistakes.
Still, if there are mistakes, please alert me, and I will update this blog as soon as possible. As always, thanks for reading, and goodbye!
