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Wei Yi

Three years running, from 2015 to 2017, Wei Yi was the Chinese champion. He won the first title at 15, the youngest ever in the open section in China. That same spring he reached 2700 on FIDE's list, younger than anyone before him. In 2024 he won the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee.

Wei Yi
Photo: Frans Peeters, 2025. CC BY-SA 2.0. Cropped and toned.
  • BornJune 2, 1999, Yancheng, China
  • CountryChina
  • TitleGrandmaster 2013
  • Highest rating2763 (October 2024)
    FIDE's official lists (from July 1971)
  • In the rankingsShared No. 8 in the world, 2761
    FIDE's list, November 2026

An early rise

Wei Yi became a grandmaster in 2013, at 13. Only three players had been younger when they earned the title. The next year he was on the Chinese team that won the Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, the country's first in the open section, and he scored 4 points out of 5.

Then came 2015. In January he won the Challengers group at Wijk aan Zee with 10½ points out of 13. On FIDE's March list he stood at 2706, breaking Magnus Carlsen's record as the youngest to 2700. He was 15. The record stood for eleven years, until Yağız Kaan Erdoğmuş of Turkey broke it in 2026, at 14.

In April he was on the team when China won the World Team Championship, and he won gold on fourth board. In May, ahead of Ding Liren among others, he won the Chinese Championship for the first time, the youngest ever in the open section in China. He won it again in 2016 and 2017.

Main results

Wei Yi's own results. At the Chess Olympiad, medals go both to the teams and to the best player on each board.
YearEventResult
2014Chess Olympiad
Tromsø		Team gold
4 of 5 points
2015, 2016, 2017Chinese Championship
China		Winner
2024Tata Steel Masters
Wijk aan Zee		Winner
8½ of 13 points
2025FIDE World Cup, knockout
Goa, India		2nd place
2026Candidates tournament
Cyprus		4th place
7 of 14 points
2026Chess Olympiad
Samarkand		Gold on board 2

Wijk aan Zee and the Candidates

At Wijk aan Zee in 2024 he shared first place with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh Dommaraju, and Anish Giri on 8½ points out of 13, and he won the tiebreak. After that he reached the world's top ten for the first time.

At the 2025 World Cup in Goa he made the final and lost it in a tiebreak to Javokhir Sindarov. That gave him a place in the 2026 Candidates tournament, his first, where he came fourth with 7 points out of 14. At the Chess Olympiad in Samarkand that year he won gold on second board.

Sources

  • FIDE: Wei Yi's rating history (ratings.fide.com, read 2026-11-09)
  • Chess.com: player page on Wei Yi and the report on his first Chinese title in 2015
  • Wikipedia: Wei Yi
  • ChessBase: Wei Yi wins a third straight Chinese Championship (2017)
  • FIDE and Chess.com: FIDE's May 2026 list, on the record to 2700
  • PGN Mentor: the games of Wijk aan Zee 2024
  • Chess.com: the final standings of the 2026 Candidates
  • The Tribune and The Bridge: the final of the 2025 World Cup
  • FIDE and Chess.com: the medals at Samarkand 2026
  • OlimpBase: the Chinese team at Tromsø 2014, and every Olympiad's winners

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.

Updated November 9, 2026