China is a major chess power, with the women's team winning silver medals at the Olympiad in 2010, 2012, and 2014; the men's team winning gold at the 2014 Olympiad, and the average rating for the country's top ten players third in the FIDE rankings as of April 2023.
China's 2008 Olympiad Team: left to right, Wang Yue, Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua, Wang Hao
Xie Jun had two reigns as Women's World Chess Champion, from 1991 to 1996 and again from 1999 to 2001.
Ye Jiangchuan has been one of China's leading players in modern history and is the national team coach. He became National Champion for the first time in 1981
Zhu Chen became China's second women's world chess champion, after Xie Jun, in 2001
Hou Yifan is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time. A chess prodigy, she was the youngest female player ever to qualify for the title of grandmaster and the youngest ever to win the Women's World Chess Championship.
Hou in 2016
Hou Yifan, when she was 11, at the 2005 World Team Chess Championship, Beersheva, Israel
Hou Yifan at the 2008 World Junior Chess Championship, Gaziantep, Turkey where she gained a GM norm
Grand Prix Cup award ceremony, Sharjah, UAE
