Wang Hao (chess player)

Wang Hao (; born August 4, 1989 in Harbin, Heilongjiang) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster. In November 2009, Wang Hao became the fourth ever Chinese player to cross the 2700 Elo rating mark. He is the reigning Chinese Chess Champion, with a ranking of No. 1 in China, No. 2 in Asia behind Viswanathan Anand and No. 24 in the world. He has assisted in preparing Levon Aronian for the Candidate Matches.

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 (IM) title. He achieved his three GM norms at the:

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

Career

In 1999, Wang came third in the U-10 Youth World Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain. In July 2002 he won the Qingdao Zhongfand Cup. In August 2002 he won gold on the fourth board of the Chinese national team in the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Kuala Lumpur.

In July 2004, being 14 years old, he again won a gold medal with his national team in the U-16 Chess Olympiad in Kozhikode where the result was 8/9 on the first board producing a rating performance of 2577. In the same month he won a youth...
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