Wang Hao (chess player)

Wang Hao
Full name	Wang Hao
Country	China
Born	(1989-08-04) August 4, 1989 Harbin, Heilongjiang, China
Title	Grandmaster
FIDE rating	2704 (January 2016)
Peak rating	2752 (January 2013)

Wang Hao (Chinese: 王皓; pinyin: Wáng Hào; born August 4, 1989 in Harbin)^[1] is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang became the fourth Chinese player to break through the 2700 Elo rating mark.

He has assisted in preparing Levon Aronian for the 2011 Candidate Matches.^[2]

In a report on the 2010 Tal Memorial, the noted chess journalist Ilya Odessky writes that Levon Aronian "in his teasing style" named Wang Hao as the most talented player of the tournament.^[3]

Grandmaster title

In 2005, he became China's 20th Grandmaster at the age of 16.

As with Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand, Wang Hao became a grandmaster without first gaining an International Master title. He achieved his three Grandmaster norms at the:^[4]

• 2005 Aeroflot Open A2 Group in Moscow, Russia (February 14–24); score 6.5/9
• 2005 Dubai Open in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (April 4–12); score 7.0/9
• 2005 2nd Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia (August 19–26); score 10/11

Career

In 1999, Wang came third in the World Under-10 Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain.^[5]

In July 2002, he won the Qingdao Zhongfand Cup. In the following month, he scored 3 point out of 5 games on the fourth board of the gold winning Chinese team in the Under-16 Chess Olympiad in Kuala Lumpur.^[6][7]

In July 2004, at 14 years old Wang again won gold with his national team in the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Calicut, India. He scored 8/9 on the first board, a result that also earned him the individual gold medal, producing a rating performance of 2577.^[8][9] In the same month he won the "Children of Asia", a youth tournament in Yakutsk, Russia.

Wang's first major tournament win was the Dubai Open in April 2005, when he was still untitled and astonishingly finished clear first with 7/9 points (rating performance of 2731), ahead of 53 grandmasters and 30 international masters.^[10] In August 2005, Wang won with 10/11 (two points clear ahead of the rest of the field) in the 2nd IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur (rating performance of 2843).^[11] In October 2005, he came joint-first in the Beijing Zonal 3.3 tournament, and took the second place after a playoff match.^[12]

In February 2007, he won the GACC Tournament at the University of Malaya. In September 2007, he came in second place after Zhang Pengxiang at the Asian Individual Championship in Manila.^[13] In October 2007, Wang came third at the World Junior Chess Championship in Yerevan.^[14]

In January 2008, at the 15th Asian Team Chess Championship in Visakhapatnam, Wang won an individual gold medal for his performance on board three (5/6). The national team had also won gold overall.^[15] In March 2008, he won the 23rd Reykjavik Open on tie-break with 7/9 points (2721 rating performance).^[16] In April 2008, Wang competed at the Russian Team Championships in Dagomys, Sochi for the team 64 (Moscow), where he achieved a score of 8.0/11 (+5=6-0) and a performance rating of 2795.^[17] In July 2008, he came 5th out of 10 players at the 9th Karpov Poikovsky Tournament (Category 18, average Elo rating: 2691) in Poikovskiy, Russia. He scored 5.0/9 (+2=6-1) with a performance of 2734.^[18] In September 2008, he competed in the 5th Russia v China Match in Ningbo, where he was the top scorer in the men's section with 3.5/5 and a performance rating of 2844 playing with Wang Yue, Bu Xiangzhi, Ni Hua, Li Chao for the Chinese men's team.^[19]

In May 2009, he scored 5.5/10 (+3=5-2) at the 39th Bosna International Tournament in Sarajevo with a 2725 performance, sharing second place with Borki Predojevic.^[20] In November 2009, he competed in the Chess World Cup 2009: after defeating Joshua Friedel and Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the first two rounds, he was knocked out by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

In May 2010, he won the 40th Bosna International Tournament.^[21] In the following month, Wang Hao won the Chinese Chess Championship scoring 7.5/11 and edging on tiebreak 2004 champion Bu Xiangzhi and Zhou Jianchao.^[22] In September 2010 he competed in the Grand Slam of Shanghai, a four players round-robin tournament, in which he played Levon Aronian, Alexei Shirov and Vladimir Kramnik. Wang Hao, the lowest ranked player in the tournament, scored three draws and three losses.

In August 2012, he won the Biel Grandmaster Tournament in Bienne, Switzerland, with six wins, one draw, and three losses. The tournament was played with three points for a win, and this result put Wang one point ahead of Magnus Carlsen, who had four wins and six draws.^[23]

Wang Hao was one of the AGON nominees for the FIDE Grand Prix Series 2012–13.^[24] In the first stage, held in London, he placed sixth with 5.5/11. He shared the first place with Sergey Karjakin and Alexander Morozevich at the second stage, that took place in Tashkent, scoring 6.5/11. In the Beijing stage, he was sixth on 5.5/11. In the final stage in Paris, Wang finished tenth with 5/11.

At the 2013 Norway Chess tournament, Wang Hao finished in seventh place with three wins, three draws, and three losses. Wang was tied for last after five rounds, when he lost against the eventual tail-ender Jon Ludvig Hammer. However, he ended the tournament very strongly with two wins over the World Championship finalists Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand.^[25]

In September 2014, he competed in the B Group of the Gashimov Memorial and scored 5/9, sharing third place with Etienne Bacrot.^[26]

In June 2015, Wang Hao scored 6.5/9 in the 10th Edmonton International Tournament, tying for the second place with Vassily Ivanchuk and Surya Shekhar Ganguly.^[27] On December 31, 2015 Wang won the 4th Al Ain Classic with 8/9, 1.5 points ahead of the nearest followers; he already ensured the victory with a round to spare.^[28]

China Chess League

Wang Hao plays for Hebei chess club in the China Chess League (CCL).^[29]

See also

• Chess in China

References

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Wang Hao (chess player).

• Wang Hao player profile and games at Chessgames.com
• Wang's Elo rating table