Grandmaster (2007); Asian Champion (2013).
Grandmaster Norms
Li Chao scored his first GM norm at the World Junior Championship in 2005 (see below), his second at the Aeroflot Open in 2007 and his third at Lake Sevan in 2007 on 14 July 2007, becoming China's 23rd grandmaster at the age of 18 years 2 months and 23 days. He won his GM title without having to win the IM title first.
Championships
<Junior> He was equal fourth in the World Junior Championship (2005) with 8.5/13, two points behind the winner Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and scoring his first grandmaster norm; this was also his best result at this event in four attempts. He also played in the World Junior Championship (2006), the World Junior Championship (2008) and the 48th World Junior Championship (2009) without appearing on the leader board.
<National> Li Chao first competed in the Chinese Championship in 2005, where he scored 3.5/9. In July and August 2007, he competed in the Chinese Championship B Group, finishing equal second with 7/10 alongside Chong Liang and Ding Liren, half a point behind the winner Jun Xu. He then competed in the main event a few months later, and scored 4/11 in the Chinese Championship 2007. A year later in 2008, he finished mid-field at the Chinese Championship with 5.5/11. He fared marginally better in the Chinese Championship (2009) where he placed =5th with 6/11. He was outright sixth at the Chinese Championship (2010) with 5.5/11. His 5/11 at the Chinese Championship (2011) was a relatively poor result, but he may have been fatigued by almost continuous chess in the weeks beforehand, contesting the 14 round selection trials in Beijing for the World Team Championship followed immediately by his participation in the Zonal 3.5; he was at the top of the results table in both events. He was equal second at the Chinese Championship (2013).
<Continental> He first participated in a continental championship at the 2007 Asian Continental, where he scored 6.5/11, 1.5 points from the lead. His next appearance at this event was the 9th Asian Continental Men's Chess Championship, where he was equal sixth on 6/9. He won the Asian Continental Championship 2013 outright with 7/9, and accordingly he again qualified for the next stage of the World Championship cycle, namely the World Cup (2013).
<World> He qualified for the World Cup (2009) via the Zonal 3.5 championship played in April 2009, defeating Gabriel Sargissian and Yannick Pelletier in the early rounds before bowing out of the event to Vugar Gashimov in the third round. He again qualified through Zonal 3.5 to play in the World Cup (2011), but lost in the first round to Vietnamese GM Truong Son Nguyen. At the World Cup in 2013, he defeated Evgeny Postny in the first round, but lost to Dutch #1 and World Junior #1 GM Anish Giri in the second round.
Standard Tournaments
<2006-2007> Li Chao's first major tournament was at the Aeroflot Open A2 in 2006, where he scored an above-rating outcome of 5.5/9. He finished 2006 with a strong equal fourth scoring 6.5/9 at the 3rd Singapore Masters International Open Tournament 2006. 2007 started with 4.5/9 at the Aeroflot Open (2007), gaining his second grandmaster norm. In July 2007, he was equal first with 5.5/9 alongside Geetha Narayanan Gopal and Yuri Vovk at the category 12 Lake Sevan round robin tournament in Armenia, gaining his third grandmaster norm. In August 2007, he won the Peoples Chess Festival in Täby, Stockholm with 8½/9. In August, he won the 4th IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysian Open Chess Championship with 9/11, half a point clear of runner-up Yunguo Wan. In late November 2007, he won the President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Cup in Manila with 7/9 on tiebreak ahead of compatriots Weiqi Zhou and Hua Ni. He finished 2007 with 7/9 and outright third placement at the Pamplona Open.
<2008-2009> He was equal first at the Dubai Open (2008) with 7/9 alongside Ehsan Ghaem Maghami, Merab Gagunashvili and Wesley So. He also won first place on tiebreak at the second Philippine International Open staged in Subic Bay Freeport Zone in 2008 ahead of Julio Catalino Sadorra, Weiqi Zhou, Buenaventura Bong Villamayor and Le Quang Liem. He subsequently also won the fifth IGB Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open in Kuala Lumpur in 2008 with the imposing score of 9/11. Soon afterwards, he was equal first (second on tiebreak) at the 3rd President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Tournament with 7/9 alongside Zhong Zhang and Eugenio Torre. In 2009, he was equal second at the 6th Dato' Arthur Tan Malaysia Open with 6.5/9, half a point behind the winner Parimarjan Negi.
<2010-2011> Li Chao won the Corus Group C (2010) with a decisive score of 10/13 (+8 -1 =4), 1.5 points ahead of outright runner-up Abhijeet Gupta. This result earned him an invitation to the Tata Steel Group B (2011), where he scored a close to par for rating 6/13. In February and March 2010, he was second behind Xiangzhi Bu at the 2010 Olympic Tournament Chinese Team Selection Double Round Robin. In April 2010, he won the 48th Doeberl Cup in Canberra, Australia and three months later he was equal first at the category 15 Hainan Danzhou GM (2010), placing second on tiebreak to Bu Xiangzhi. In March 2011, he easily won selection to represent his country at the World Team Championship 2011 (see below) when he placed equal first at the 2011 World Chess Team Tournament Chinese Players Selection Double Round Robin that was staged in Beijing, scoring 9/14 alongside Yangyi Yu and Weiqi Zhou. A modest 4/9 result at the Hainan Danzhou GM (2011) was followed by a runaway 8.5/9 winning result at the 26th Summer Universiade Individual Men played in Beijing in August 2011, two points clear of Yue Wang, Hao Wang, Aleksandr Rakhmanov, Zaven Andriasian, Vasily Papin and Martyn Kravtsiv. In October 2011, he won the Indonesia Open 2011 on tiebreak ahead of Surya Shekhar Ganguly with 7/9.
<2012-2013> In January, he placed equal first (second on tiebreak) at the Queenstown Chess Classic (2012) with 7.5/9 (+6 =3). The following month he won the 5th Colombo International Championships in Sri Lanka with 9/9. In October 2012 he came =1st at the 2nd Indonesia Open Chess Championship (2012). In December 2012 and January 2013, he toured the USA and came third in the 22nd Annual North American Open, and won the combined rapid/classical 2013 Boston Chess Congress and the 2013 Golden State Open, the last mentioned having been played in Concord, California. In March 2013, he returned to Canberra to win the 51st Doeberl Cup with 7.5/9 and soon afterwards placed 2nd behind Loek van Wely at the 2013 Sydney International Open. In July 2013, he was equal first with eight other players at the 27th World Summer Universiade staged in Kazan in Russia.
<2014-2015> In January 2014 he won the 17th Guben New Year Open 2014 with 9/9 and the 16th NordWest Cup in Bad Zwischenahm with 6/7. He won the Reykjavik Open (2014) with 8.5/10 followed by equal fourth at Gibraltar Masters (2014), half a point from the shared lead with 7.5/10, and then equal second with 6.5/9 at the Casino Open held in Graz in February in Austria. In October 2014, he won the 9th Deizisauer International Fall Open with the perfect score of 7/7. In November 2014, he was =1st at the Caen Open and later that month he won the Heusenstammer Schloss Open 6/7. In December 2014, he was equal first at the Barcelona Masters. 2015 started with equal first at the Cappelle-la-Grande in France with 7.5/9, followed by equal third at the 5th HD Bank Cup International open held in Vietnam. There followed a strong win at the 19th Neckar International Open, taking outright first with 8.5/9, a point ahead of runner-up IM Andreas Heimann and 1.5 points ahead of equal 3rd place getters Arkadij Naiditsch and Etienne Bacrot. He scored a rating-neutral 5.5/9 at the powerful Qatar Masters (2015).
Team Events
<Olympiads and other National Representation> Li Chao represented his country at the U16 Olympiads in 2002 and 2004, winning team gold in both and individual gold for board four in the latter. He played as a reserve for China at the Dresden Olympiad (2008), the Khanty-Mansiysk Olympiad (2010), and at the Istanbul Olympiad (2012) in Istanbul. At the last mentioned, he scored 6/7 with a TPR of 2794, missing an individual medal as he was one game short of qualifying for consideration. In other events in which he represented China, he competed in the World Team Championship (2011) and the World Team Championship (2013), scoring team silver on both occasions and individual bronze for board three in 2011. Playing board 3 for China at the 17th Asian Team Championship held in Zaozhuang, China in May 2012, he won team gold and individual bronze. He also played for China in the Russia - China Match (2008) friendly and in the 'Aigo Cup' China-Sweden Summit in 2006, helping his team to victory on both occasions. He scored 7/9 at the World Team Championship (2017).
<Continental> In 2008, Li played reserve for the Al-Ain Chess Club "A" in the Asian Team Championship, winning team and individual gold. Playing board two for Shijiazhuang city at the 17th Asian Cities Chess Championship in Jakarta in 2011, he scored team and individual gold. Li also played fourth board for the Siberia Novosibirsk side in European Club Cup (2015), finishing with the fourth-highest score on his board as his team won the gold medal.
<National> He played for Beijing in the Chinese League from 2005 until 2013 inclusive, during this time winning 3 team golds, 5 team silvers and 1 team bronze. In 2014, Li Chao started playing in the Oberliga Wuerttemberg in Germany, the French League and in the Bundesliga, playing board 3 in the last mentioned for the SK Schwäbisch Hall team. He is again playing for SK Schwäbisch Hall in the 2015-16 season.
Match
He played and won the Leko - Li Chao (2015) match by 4-2, although the final game was not rated due to him clinching the match with a game to spare.
Rapid and Blitz
Li Chao does not seem to favor the quicker versions of the game; however, he did rack up an outright win at the City of Sydney Blitz 2013 with 7.5/9 ahead of Rajaram R Laxman and Attila Czebe. He is currently inactive in both the rapid and blitz forms of the game.
Ratings and Rankings
Li Chao's highest standard rating and ranking to date was 2756 in May 2015 when he was ranked world #14.
He first entered the world's top 100 in April 2009 whilst still a Junior, and has remained in the top 100 since May 2011.
References
Wikipedia article: Li Chao (chess player) and <This Week in Chess>.
Sources
The main source of information for individual events for this bio was the FIDE database (via his FIDE player card) that supplied details of his results since he first became FIDE rated. Information about team results was extracted from Olimpbase.
Kibitzing
