China is a major chess power, with the women's team winning gold medals at the Olympiad in 1998, 2000, 2002, 2004, 2016, 2018, 2026; silver medals in 1996, 2010, 2012, and 2014; bronze medals in 1990, 1992, 1994, 2006. The Open team won gold at the 2014 and 2018 Olympiads, and silver at 2006. The average rating for the country's top ten players is 2666, which is third in the FIDE rankings as of May 2026.
Chinese progress has been underpinned by large government support and testing competition in numerous tough events. As of May 2023, eight of the world's top hundred players are from China, as is the world's highest-rated woman player, Hou Yifan. The former World chess champion Ding Liren and Women's World chess champion Ju Wenjun are also from China.
Chess has only gained popularity in China in the last few decades, and while chess has grown exponentially in China, it still trails Chinese chess (xiangqi) and go (weiqi) by a small margin. There are about three million people in China who play chess, of which 300,000 are in the federation.
In 1974 a seminal meeting was held in Kuala Lumpur that was attended by Malaysian Chess Federation President Dato Tan Chin Nam, a prominent businessman; Lim Kok Ann, then President of the Singapore Chess Association; President of the Japan Chess Association Yasuji Matsumoto; FIDE and Philippine Chess Federation President, Florencio Campomanes and two observers from the Chinese Embassy. The aim of this important meeting was to figure out how to raise the technical level of chess in Asia in order to reach the highest levels.
It was decided to promote chess first in China where it was believed to have the biggest potential for success. The plan came to be known in Asian chess circles as the "Big Dragon Project" and the man behind it was Dato Tan Chin Nam. He was instrumental in gaining China entrance into FIDE in 1976 and has since backed Asian and Chinese chess in particular financially. The Big Dragon plan called for the Chinese to reach world-class status by the end of the century, something that was largely achieved.
Governing body The national governing body for chess is the Chinese Chess Association, which runs the country's premier chess training academy, the National Chess Center in Beijing. (See Chess Centres.)
National league
National Championship
Early history
Chess in its current form was developed in medieval to early modern Europe where in the 19th century modern tournament play began, and the first world chess championship was held. The most accepted view is that the direct ancestor of the game, shatranj, was transmitted by the Persians from ancient India, where it was known as chaturanga. Chaturanga is assumed to have also spread eastward to China, under the name of xiangqi ("elephant game"). According to the chess historian H. J. R. Murray, the earliest certain reference to xiangqi in Chinese sources dates to 762 AD (earlier passages containing the character xiang, which has several different meanings, cannot be proven to refer to elephant chess).Helena M. Gamer: "The Earliest Evidence of Chess in Western Literature: The Einsiedeln Verses", Speculum, Vol. 29, No. 4 (1954), pp. 734–750 (735)
Modern history
The European form of Chess was only introduced in China during the 19th century but has never been as popular as Weiqi or Xiangqi. Alexander Alekhine was the first great chess player to visit China in 1933. In an exhibition played in Shanghai, he was held to two draws, one to Xie Xiaxun Chinese: 谢侠逊, the leading xiangqi player, also nicknamed 总司令 (Chinese for Top Commander) of the first half of the 20th century and later nicknamed "Centurian chess king" because at 100 years old, he was a strong player in all the three strategy board games. Xie Xiaxun (not related to former women's world champion Xie Jun), helped to promote the game and was the top player in China after World War II. In 1935, he visited Malaya and Singapore and defeated their champion as well as the British Air Forces champion Hunter. In 1936, in Guangzhou, the British sponsored a tournament with top players from Austria, Britain, China, Germany and the United States. Xie won the tournament convincingly by drawing one and winning the other 18 games. In 1987, Xie (who lived in Wenzhou) died at the age of 101.
Chess was not listed as a competitive sport in China until 1956. In the same year, the 1st Chess Exhibition Tournament was held in Beijing, where only six players from four provinces participated. But at the National Chess Tournament held one year later, 22 players from approximately 10 provinces and cities were attending. From 1957 to 1966, national competition was almost held once a year and the number of players grew exponentially.
The Chess Association of China was formed in 1962 as a minor affiliate of the Chinese Xiangqi Association due to the lack of popularity for the game at the time and only became a fully-fledged independent organization in 1986. It has been only in the last 30 or so years that chess has made major inroads in China, where the game is seen as the poorer cousin of the more popular xiangqi. Chess was banned during the first eight years of the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), but by 1974 there was an easing of the ban that saw China begin to participate in international competitions, the first being in 1976.
In the early 1960s, chess classes were conducted at Children's Palaces or Amateur Sports Schools in key chess cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Wenzhou and Hangzhou. From the mid-1970s, junior chess classes have also been established consecutively in Chengdu, Guangzhou, Shanxi and Tianjin, where professional chess coaches were hired or arranged to deliver trainings. This has facilitated the growth of many young players. Many big names had been trained at those chess classes when they were young, such as female grandmasters Liu Shilan and Wu Minqian; female master An Yanfeng; male master Qi Jingxuan, Li Zunian, Liang Jinrong, Yang Xian, Lin Ta, Ma Hongding (马红丁, born in 1963) and Wang Li.
Before the ban on chess was imposed in 1966, the Chinese national team played four international matches with the Soviet Union, represented by master players.
After the end of the Chinese National Chess Championship Final in December 1958, three Soviet masters, Boris Baranov, Mamadzhan Mukhitdinov and Alexander Grushevsky visited China. They met top three finishers of Chinese National Chess Championship in Cultural Garden, Guangzhou. The Chinese lost all three games. In the game Grushevsky-Xian Quan (later known as Sin Kuen after leaving to Hong Kong) the Chinese had good winning chances in the middlegame but blundered badly and lost. The USSR team then went to Shanghai and Hohhot, where they met local chess players and defeating them all as well.
In 1963, China invited a Soviet team to play the return match. To prepare for the match, the Chinese National Sports Committee from June 14 – July 15 selected over 20 players from all over the country to form a National Chess Training Team: Deng Wenxiang, Feng Bingrong, Feng Zuquan, Hong Kemin, Hou Chengji, Huang Xinzhai, Jian Mingji, Li Chengyi, Li Zhongjian, Li Zhu, Liu Chengwan, Liu Zhenguo, Lu Zhuoran, Qian Zongxiang, Wang Bijun, Wu Weiwen, Xu Hongshun, Xu Jialiang, Xu Tianli, Zhang Donglu, Zhang Fujiang and Zhu Fushan. Jian Mingji, the young player from Guangdong, who changed his name to Kan Wai Shui when he left to Hong Kong, took the first place in the round robin qualifying tournament.
In early September 1963, the following qualified eight players from their results: Xu Tianli, Jian Mingji, Deng Wenxiang, Xu Hongshun, Zhang Donglu, Huang Xinzhai, Feng Bingrong and Li Zhongjian. They traveled from Shanghai to Beijing to meet the Soviet team. In September it was confirmed that the Soviets would be led by GM Andor Lilienthal, and other two players were IM Mikhail Yudovich and Vladimir Zagorovsky. As preparation the Chinese team looked at their opponents’ games in order to analyze their style of play and predict what kind of strategy or tactics would be used.
Beijing (September 8–12, 1963): the soviet team arrived at the Yuexin Palace, Beihai (North Sea) Garden, Beijing, to play the first three rounds of the match with a total of nine games. Huang Zhong, Chinese Deputy Chairman of the National Sports Committee also attended to watch the match. It was the first occasion that Chinese chess players had met strong foreign players. They played cautiously and fought hard with tension and excitement. Although the Chinese did their best, the Soviets were just too strong for them, winning six games and drawing three. Shanghai (September 16–20, 1963): the teams then played in Shanghai, where the venue was Shanghai Sports Club to host another set of three rounds. Huang Xinzhai, the young player from Shanghai, scored historic win against Zagorovsky in 6th round, which was the only Chinese success in the whole match. Huang Xinzhai was a fan of xiangqi since his childhood and he won in 1957 the Shanghai Secondary School Xiangqi Championship. He learned chess from Xie Xiaxun (Centenarian Xiangqi King) and, in 1959, he won the 2nd National Chess Games Championship in Shanghai. Later he won the Chinese Chess Championship in 1965. Hangzhou (September 22–24, 1963): the last two rounds (with a total of six games) were played in Hangzhou. The match was won by the Soviet team +15=8-1 overall. Even though the Chinese team lost by a large margin again, compared to the previous meeting in 1958, the Chinese leading players' abilities were vastly improved. It was noted that the Soviet and Chinese players often analyzed together just after the finished game showing good friendship and respect. The Communist Party and Chinese authorities also took interest in the match, as when the USSR team arrived in Beijing, the Chinese Premier Zhou Enlai himself greeted and received the Soviet players with honours.
The third match was played in Moscow in 1964 with China being led by the Chief of National Sports Wushu (martial arts) Mao Bohao, while five team members were Jian Mingji, Xu Tianli, Zhang Donglu, Xu Hongshun, Huang Xinzhai. They arrived on June 4. This was the first time the Chinese national chess team played abroad. They played three matches.
The first one was played in Moscow University resulting in five draws. But the second round, played in the club of automotive factory in Moscow, was a one sided battle. Only Xu Tianli scraped a draw, while others lost. The third match was played in Moscow Chess Association's hall. The Chinese lost all the games.
On December 7, 1965, there was a friendship match between players of USSR and China in Beijing. In the 6 round competitions, China scored one victory, one draw and four losses. The Soviet team was led by GM Nikolai Krogius with his teammates Felix Ignatiev, Boris Shatskes, Yuriy Vasilchuk, Mamadzhan Mukhitdinov and Boris Shipov. They played three friendly matches in Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou. In these three matches the Chinese team scored 10 wins 17 draws and 27 losses. China's Liu Wenzhe and Zhang Donglu both beat GM Krogius in their games and they were the best among Chinese players – 5 points out of 8 games with 62.5%
In 1974, at the invitation of the Malaysian business tycoon Dato Tan Chin Nam, then President of the reorganized Malaysian Chess Federation, China was invited to attend the 1st Asian Team Championship with observer status. It was also in 1974 that China held its first National Championship tournament. The first international tournament ever held in China was in 1980.