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Ju Wenjun

Ju Wenjun of China has been women's world chess champion since 2018. She has won the title five times, more than any other Chinese player, most recently in April 2025. Her next challenger is Vaishali Rameshbabu of India.

Ju Wenjun
Photo: Frans Peeters, 2024. CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and toned.
  • BornJanuary 31, 1991, Shanghai
  • CountryChina
  • Women's world championsince 2018
  • In the line of women's championsNo. 17 of 17
  • Highest rating2604 (March 2017)
    FIDE's official lists (from July 1971)

The road to the title

Ju Wenjun was born in Shanghai in 1991. She received the grandmaster title in 2014 and has also been women's world rapid champion.

In 2018 she challenged the champion, Tan Zhongyi, in a ten-game match played in Shanghai and Chongqing. Ju Wenjun won 5½–4½ and became the seventeenth women's world champion.

The title matches

Ju Wenjun's points come first, then wins (+), losses (−) and draws (=) in the classical games. A tiebreak at faster time controls is given separately.
YearAgainstResultWhere
2018Tan Zhongyi5½–4½ (+3 −2 =5)
Won the title		Shanghai and Chongqing
2018Kateryna Lagno2–2, tiebreak 3–1
Kept the title · the final of FIDE's knockout		Khanty-Mansiysk
2020Aleksandra Goryachkina6–6 (+3 −3 =6), tiebreak 2½–1½
Kept the title		Shanghai and Vladivostok
2023Lei Tingjie6½–5½ (+2 −1 =9)
Kept the title		Shanghai and Chongqing
2025Tan Zhongyi6½–2½ (+5 −1 =3)
Kept the title		Shanghai and Chongqing

Five titles

Only half a year later the title was decided in a knockout tournament in Khanty-Mansiysk. Ju Wenjun won that as well, after a tiebreak against Kateryna Lagno in the final. It was the first time since 2000 that a champion had kept her title in a knockout.

Since then she has won three title matches: against Aleksandra Goryachkina in 2020 after a rapid tiebreak, against Lei Tingjie in 2023 by 6½–5½, and against Tan Zhongyi in 2025 by 6½–2½.

Now

Ju Wenjun's next challenger is Vaishali Rameshbabu of India, who won the Women's Candidates tournament in Cyprus in April 2026. The match will run to at most twelve games, and the first to reach 6½ points wins. FIDE has not yet announced when and where it will be played. This page will be updated when the match has been played.

Sources

  • Wikipedia: Ju Wenjun
  • Chess.com: Ju Wenjun
  • FIDE: Crowning a Champion: Ju Wenjun clinches her fifth title (2025)
  • FIDE: FIDE Women's World Championship Cycle 2025–2026
  • ChessBase: the title matches of 2018 and 2020
  • FIDE: Ju Wenjun's rating history

The facts on this page come from the sources above, checked against each other. Where the sources disagree, only what they agree on is given. The match results are also checked game by game.

Updated November 8, 2026