Yu Yangyi is one of China's most talented chess players. He was born on June 8, 1994, in the town of Huangshi in Hubei Province. He started playing at age seven and quickly found success, winning all the Chinese youth championships. In 2003, he competed in the U10 World Championship, tying for third place. Just a year later, he tied for 1st-4th place and became the first Chinese player to win this title, sharing points with the future world champion Hou Yifan. He received praise from Ye Jiangchuan, and the head coach included him on the national team, bringing him to Beijing. Yu’s breakthrough came in 2009 when he finished third in the Asian Championship, won several open tournaments, and made it to the second round of the World Cup. Just 7 days before his 15th birthday, he bypassed the master title, earning the grandmaster title directly (a record later surpassed only by Wei Yi). His next jump in results came in 2011: he placed fourth in the Aeroflot Open and then, with a performance rating of 2880, surprised everyone by winning the main super tournament in Danzhou with 7/9, ahead of his compatriots.
After that, he debuted on the Chinese national team on the sixth board, almost helping it win the world championship. By 2014, he had become indispensable to the team. Thanks largely to his score of 9.5/11 on the third board, the Chinese team won its first-ever Olympiad, with Yu’s performance rating hitting 2912! That year was one of the most successful in his career: in addition to his World U20 title (11/13), he won the Chinese Championship (7/11) and Asian Championship (7/9), and then dominated the elite Qatar Masters Open with 7.5/9, defeating players like Kramnik and Giri. Following this success, Yu crossed the 2700-rating mark, taking the top spot among the world’s strongest young players. In 2015, he almost won in Doha again but was held back only by Carlsen, who matched his 7/9 score and defeated him in the tiebreak. In 2017, Yu was close to victory in another super open in Gibraltar, sharing 1st-3rd place with Nakamura and David Anton Guijarro (8/10) but again losing the tiebreak, this time to Nakamura.
In 2017, the Chinese team, with Yu on the 2nd board, won the World Team Championship for the second consecutive time, and in 2018, they again took gold at the Olympiad! By then, Yu had reached his peak rating of 2765, and the following year he reached his peak ranking, entering the top 10 for the first and only time. Yu did go on to win the Chinese Championship twice (2020, 2021) and claimed victory in the Shenzhen Masters (2021), and reached the semifinals of the 2019 World Cup, where he lost to Ding Liren, falling just half a point short of qualifying from the 2021 Grand Swiss (7/11).
He has notable achievements in the World Rapid and Blitz Championships: from 2016 to 2019, he consistently placed in the top six, achieving his best result in 2023 with a bronze medal in the Rapid. Another significant achievement for him was the 2019 Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz, where Yu Yangyi tied for 2nd-4th place with Ding Liren and Vachier-Lagrave. Today, he remains a strong contender in many tournaments.
