Jeffery Xiong (born October 30, 2000) is an American
chess
Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...
prodigy. He earned the
Grandmaster title in September 2015 at the age of fourteen, the fourth youngest player to qualify in the US.
Chess career
Xiong was aged seven when he played in his first tournament, quickly achieving the
USCF title of
expert
An expert is somebody who has a broad and deep understanding and competence in terms of knowledge, skill and experience through practice and education in a particular field. Informally, an expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable s ...
on August 22, 2009. He was awarded the title
FIDE Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating an ...
a year later at the
World Youth Chess Championship
The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...
s,
where he was the runner-up to Jason Cao in the U10 category.
Xiong achieved his
norms required for the title
International Master
FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...
by scoring 6/9 points at the 4th Annual Golden State Open in January 2013, 5/9 at the
UT Dallas
The University of Texas at Dallas (UTD or UT Dallas) is a public research university in Richardson, Texas. It is one of the largest public universities in the Dallas area and the northernmost institution of the University of Texas system. It wa ...
Spring
FIDE
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...
Open and 5½/9 at the Annual Philadelphia Open, both in March 2013. His title was confirmed in 2014, when his FIDE
rating
A rating is an evaluation or assessment of something, in terms of quality, quantity, or some combination of both.
Rating or ratings may also refer to:
Business and economics
* Credit rating, estimating the credit worthiness of an individual, c ...
reached 2400.
[
He achieved the norms for the Grandmaster title by scoring 6/9 points at the Chicago Open in 2014, 6/9 at the UT Dallas Open in November 2014, 7/9 at the Chicago Open in May 2015.
Xiong came second at the US Junior Closed Chess Championships in July 2015 with a score of 6½/9. He won the 7th Saint Louis Grandmaster Invitational 2015 with a score of 7/9. He became a Grandmaster in September 2015, the fourth youngest player to qualify for the title in the US, after ]Abhimanyu Mishra
Abhimanyu Mishra (born February 5, 2009) is an United States of America, American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he became the youngest player ever to qualify for the grandmaster title on June 30, 2021, at the age of 12 years 4 months and ...
, Awonder Liang
Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003) is an American chess prodigy. He is the third youngest American to qualify for the title of Grandmaster (after Abhimanyu Mishra and Samuel Sevian), at the age of 14. Liang was twice world champion in ...
, and Samuel Sevian
Samuel Sevian (born December 26, 2000) is an American chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he earned the grandmaster title at the age of 13 years, 10 months and 27 days, making him the youngest ever American Grandmaster at the time. He also br ...
. He later received the organizer's wild card invitation to the 2016 US Chess Championship
The U.S. Chess Championship is an invitational tournament held to determine the United States chess champion. Begun as a challenge match in 1845, the U.S. Championship has been decided by tournament play for most of its long history. Since 1936, i ...
, where he finished 6th out of 12 players, with 1 win, 1 loss, and 9 draws.
In February 2016 he entered the top ten players in the world under age 20, and a month later he reached a FIDE rating of 2600 for the first time.
In July 2016, Xiong won the B group ("Premier") of the Capablanca Memorial
The Capablanca Memorial is a chess tournament that has been held annually in Cuba since 1962 in honor of José Raúl Capablanca y Graupera. At the time, it was the best paid tournament in the world. Since 1974 B and C tournaments have been held ...
and the US Closed Junior Championship. The following month, he won the World Junior Chess Championship
The World Junior Chess Championship is an under-20 chess tournament (players must have been under 20 years old on 1 January in the year of competition) organized by the World Chess Federation (FIDE).
The idea was the brainchild of William Ritso ...
, held in Bhubaneswar
Bhubaneswar (; ) is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of Odisha. The region, especially the old town, was historically often depicted as ''Ekamra Kshetra'' (area (''kshetra'') adorned with mango trees (''ekamra'')). Bhubaneswar is ...
, India with a round to spare. He finished with an undefeated 10.5/13, a point ahead of Vladislav Artemiev
Vladislav Mikhailovich Artemiev (russian: Владисла́в Миха́йлович Арте́мьев; born 5 March 1998) is a Russian chess player and former chess prodigy. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2014. Artemiev is the ...
.
In March 2018, Xiong won the St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
Spring Classic A group, a round-robin tournament
A round-robin tournament (or all-go-away-tournament) is a competition
Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...
of category XVII, with an unbeaten score of 6½ points (4 wins, 5 draws) out of 9, 1½ points clear of the field. His performance rating was 2819. One year later, he won again with an unbeaten 6/9 score (3 wins, 6 draws), half point clear of second-placed Illia Nyzhnyk
Illia Ihorovych Nyzhnyk ( uk, Ілля Ігорович Нижник; born September 27, 1996) is a Ukrainian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster (2011).
Chess career
He was born in Vinnytsia (Ukraine) and gained worldwide attention when he ...
.
In September 2019, Xiong participated in the FIDE World Cup
The FIDE World Cup refers to three different events over the years. Since 2000, it has been a major chess event organized by FIDE, the International Chess Federation. Since 2005, it has been a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament, formi ...
. Seeded 31st in the tournament, he made it to the quarterfinals by beating Igor Lysyj
Igor Ilyich Lysyj (; born 1 January 1987) is a Russian chess player and writer. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2007. Lysyj was Russian champion in 2014.
Together with 43 other Russian chess players, Lysyj signed an open l ...
, Parham Maghsoodloo
Parham Maghsoodloo ( fa, پرهام مقصودلو, born 11 August 2000) is an Iranian chess grandmaster. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2016. Maghsoodloo is a three-time Iranian national champion and became the World Jun ...
, Anish Giri
Anish Kumar Giri ( ne, अनीश कुमार गिरी; russian: Аниш Кумар Гири; born 28 June 1994) is a Russian-born Dutch chess grandmaster. A chess prodigy, he completed the requirements for the title Grandmaster at t ...
and Jan-Krzysztof Duda
Jan-Krzysztof Duda (; born 26 April 1998) is a Polish chess grandmaster. A prodigy, he achieved the grandmaster title in 2013 at the age of 15 years and 21 days. he is ranked No. 1 in Poland and No. 18 in the world. His personal best rating ...
. Xiong was then eliminated by the eventual winner, Teimour Radjabov
Teimour Boris oghlu Radjabov (also spelled Teymur Rajabov; az, Teymur Boris oğlu Rəcəbov, ; born 12 March 1987) is an Azerbaijani chess grandmaster, ranked number 18 in the world
A former child prodigy, he earned the title of Grandmaster ...
In October 2020, Xiong placed second (behind Wesley So
Wesley Barbossa So (born October 9, 1993) is a Filipino and American chess grandmaster and 3-time U.S. Chess Champion (in 2017, 2020, and 2021). He is also a three-time Philippine Chess Champion. On the March 2017 FIDE rating list, he was ran ...
) in the US chess championship, and also second (behind John Burke) in the US junior championship.
References
External links
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{{American chess grandmasters
2000 births
Living people
American chess players
Chess grandmasters
World Junior Chess Champions
People from Plano, Texas
American people of Chinese descent