Yangyi Yu gained his Grandmaster title with effect from 1 July 2009 aged 15 and 23 days, without having first acquired either a FM or IM title. He is China's 29th Grandmaster.His first impact in international chess occurred when he came equal second in the World U10 Championship in Halkidiki in Greece in 2003. He then went one step further in 2004 when he won the U10 title in Heraklio, also in Greece. In May 2009, the then untitled teenager came equal third in 8th Asian Continental Chess Championship (2009), thereby gaining his first GM norm and qualifying for the 2009 World Cup . The following week, he gained his 2nd GM norm at the Subic International Open, which was all that was required for his title, apart from reaching ELO 2500 on 1 July 2009.
He was 113th seed in the World Cup (2009) and he caused the biggest upset of the first round by defeating 16th seeded Sergei Movsesian. In the second round he defeated number 80 seed, Mateusz Bartel, before being defeated in the third round by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. In the World Cup (2011), he fell in the first round to Romanian GM Mircea Parligras.
Yangyi's best results so far in other tournaments have been 2nd in the Aeroflot Open Group C in 2007, 3rd in the Aeroflot Open Group B in 2008, 3rd in the Dvorkovich Cup in Moscow in 2008, 2nd in the Zhejiang Lishui Xingqiu Open in September 2009 behind Le Quang Liem, and first in the 1st HD Bank Cup Open 2011. His breakthrough results came in the 2011 Moscow Open where he came =2nd (3rd on countback) with 6/9 (2768 performance rating) and at the Aeroflot Open (2011) when he placed =4th with 6/9 (+4 -1 =4 and a 2762 performance rating), half a point behind the leaders.
His performance at the 10th Asian Individual Championships (2011), where he placed =1st alongside Ngoc Truongson Nguyen and Pentala Harikrishna qualified him for the 2011 World Cup. He barnstormed a brilliant win with 7/9, 1.5 points clear of equal second placed Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue, at the 2nd Danzhou Tournament (2011), the result lifting him into the top 100 of the world for the second time. Yu played board four for the silver medal winning Chinese team at the World Chess Team Championship (2011). He placed outright second at the Chinese Chess Championships (2012), scoring 7/11 and qualifying for the 2013 World Cup by virtue of the event also being the Zonal 3.5 qualifier. He then came =1st (2nd on tiebreak) with 7/9 at the Asian Continental Chess Championship (2012) and scored team gold and individual silver on the reserve board for China at the 17th Asian Team Championship held in Zaozhuang, China in May 2012. In August 2012, he scored 9/13 in the World Junior Championship (2012), a point behind the winner, Alexander Ipatov and in October 2012 he won the 2nd Indonesia Open Chess Championship (2012).
2013 started with strong performances in the Tradewise Gibraltar (2013) where he placed =5th with 7.5/10, and at the Reykjavik Open (2013) where he scored 7/10 to bring his rating to within a few points of 2700. However, March 2013 saw a significant setback at the 3rd HD Bank Cup (2013) where he scored a poor 5.5/9, shedding 21 rating points.
He plays for the Beijing AIGO Team in the Chinese Chess League and in the 2012 season, he scored 15.5/22 helping his team to 2nd place in the league. He is again playing for this Beijing team in 2013.
Yangyi Yu's standard FIDE rating as of 1 May 2013 was 2675, making him the 2nd ranked junior in Asia behind Wesley So and the 3rd ranked junior player in the world behind Anish Giri and So, the number 5 player in China, and number 68 in the world overall. His rapid rating is 2675 (world #53), and his blitz rating is 2748 (world #18).
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Wikipedia article: Yu Yangyi
