In terms of talent and preparation, Wei Yi belongs to the rare group of players capable of becoming a world champion. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond his control, chess never became the main focus of his life, despite his bold declaration at 17 that he wanted to become a chess king.
Wei Yi was born on June 2, 1999 in Jiangsu Province. He learned to play chess at the age of 6 and by just three years later he won the World Championship for players under 11 with a score of 8.5/9. The Chinese prodigy consistently triumphed in all categories, often outpacing opponents much older than him, until at 13, he secured 11th place in the World Championship for players under 20. He earned his first Grandmaster norm at that tournament and by the age of 13 years, 8 months, and 23 days, he had achieved the Grandmaster title.
Wei Yi continued to break records regularly, claiming the title of "youngest" in various categories. In 2013, he reached the 3rd round of the World Cup, defeating Nepomniachtchi and Shirov and became the fastest in history to achieve a rating of 2600, surpassing Wesley So. In 2014 he became an Olympic champion as part of the Chinese team and the following year he won the national championship in a tournament featuring all the top players (he would win the Chinese championship two more times). But the main achievement of 2015 was breaking the 2700 barrier, surpassing Carlsen's previous record and advancing to the quarterfinals of the World Cup, where the 15-year-old lost to Peter Svidler, one of the finalists, in the rapid tiebreaker.
In 2016 Wei Yi reached the final tournament of the year in Bilbao, competing against five other top-10 players and finished in 3rd place. At that time the future world champion Ding Liren remarked: "I am merely a small stream or a small hill in his path, surpassing me and everyone else is just a matter of time for him!"
In the next two years, Wei Yi continued to win: in the Chinese championships, Danzhou Super GM (6.5/9) and Asian Championship (6.5/9). However in 2018, when all doors in chess seemed open to him, he became a student at the School of Economics and Management at Tsinghua University and immersed himself in his studies. His last major success for nearly five years was at the 2019 FIDE Grand Prix in Jerusalem, where he reached the final but lost to Nepomniachtchi.
Wei Yi chose to focus on his studies at a timely moment – starting in 2020, China was hit by an epidemic, leaving its chess players completely deprived of practice. Over three years he played only twice in national championships and in 2023 he became Ding Liren's second in the World Championship match.
His first tournament after the long break was Wijk aan Zee 2024 – an immediate triumph with a powerful finish (4.5/5) and victory in the tie-breaks. Soon afterwards, Wei Yi dominated the Grand Chess Tour in Warsaw in rapid & blitz with only a remarkable finishing surge by Carlsen preventing him from winning. But after that everyone understood: the story of Wei Yi is far from over. He is back and he ready to Getty victories!
