Zhao Zong-Yuan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Zhao Zong-Yuan
Image:Replace this image male.svg
Full name Zhao Zong-Yuan
Country Flag of Australia Australia
Born June 26, 1986 (1986-06-26) (age 21)
Beijing, China
Title Grandmaster (GM)
FIDE rating 2541
Peak rating 2541 (April 2008)
This is a Chinese name; the family name is Zhao.

Zhao Zong-Yuan (born June 26, 1986,[1] Beijing) is an Australian chess Grandmaster.

Contents

[edit] Early life

Zhao grew up in Coffs Harbour, Australia, and is now a pharmacy student at the University of Sydney. He is known to be an avid reader of High Court judgements of Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick.[citation needed]

[edit] Chess career

Zhao became the youngest Australian international master at the age of 14, and was a member of the NSW Junior Chess League.[2]

Zhao won with 8/8 the 1999 Queensland Under-18 Championship and then finishing just half a point behind Darryl Johansen in the Australian Championship proper, finishing with a remarkable 4/4 burst. In 2000, he finished second to Aleksandar Wohl in the Oceania Zonal and in 2001, won the Australian Junior Championship. He played in the 2001 British Championship and scored 6/11. In 2004 he won the Doeberl Cup with 6/7 ahead of Ian Rogers, David Smerdon, Johansen and Gary Lane. In 2005 he won the Australian Junior Masters with a 9/9 score. He has represented his country in three Olympiads and in 2006 was on board three.

In January 2007, Zhao won the Australian Open with 9.5/11 points with a 2673 performance rating.[3] In May 2007, he came first place at the 2007 Oceania Zonal in Fiji with 7/9 points, ahead of New Zealander Puchen Wang. This enabled him to qualify for the 2007 FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia,[4] where he was knocked out in the first round by Magnus Carlsen (0-2). In July 2007, he won the Australian National University Open with a score of 6/7.[5]

Zhao achieved all three of the required grandmaster (GM) norms over two months in December 2007 and January 2008. Zhao scored 7/9 earning his first GM norm in the First Saturday chess tournament (1-10 December 2007) in Budapest, Hungary.[6][7] Zhao earned his second GM norm by convincingly winning with 6.5 points the VII Festival Internacional de Ajedrez GEMA tournament (10th category round robin) which was held from 26 December 2007 until 5 January 2008 in Mondariz Balneario (Pontevedra), Spain.[8] In his third attempt, which was unsuccessful, Zhao played in the 33rd Seville Open/XXXIII Abierto Internacional "Ciudad de Sevilla"[9] (5-12 January 2008) Sevilla, Spain finishing with 6.5/9 points (=10th place). In 22-31 January 2008 he managed to achieve his final GM norm at the 2008 Gibtelecom Chess Festival[10] in Gibraltar. Together with achieving a rating over 2500, this means he has qualified for the title of Grandmaster. Zhao is Australia's third grandmaster, after Ian Rogers and Darryl Johansen.

Zhao will play in the 2008 Sydney International Open on 25-29 March.[11]

[edit] References

  1. ^ newinchess.com
  2. ^ NSWJCL Links
  3. ^ http://www.actjcl.org.au/ausopen2006/AUSopenRound11.pdf
  4. ^ ::FIJI CHESS FEDERATION:: Oceania Zonal 2007
  5. ^ chessexpress: July 2007
  6. ^ First Saturday Chess Tournament Series in Budapest, Hungary
  7. ^ Gardiner Chess Newsletter No 63
  8. ^ VII Festival Internacional de ajedrez GEMA. Grupo de Empresas Marcote. Mondariz Balneario. Pontevedra. 2007
  9. ^ Federación Sevillana de Ajedrez
  10. ^ Gibraltar Chess Festival
  11. ^ The Week in Chess 697

[edit] External links

Languages