Awonder Liang (born April 9, 2003)[1] is an American chessGrandmaster. A chess prodigy in his youth, he was 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 his age category.
Liang attended Madison West High School.[2] For middle school, he attended Velma Hamilton Middle School. He was a student at Charles Van Hise Elementary School for elementary school. He is now attending the University of Chicago.
Career
On April 16, 2011, when he played in the Hales Corners Challenge chess tournament in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Liang became the youngest chess expert in United States Chess Federation (USCF) history with a rating of 2000 at the age of 8 years and 7 days.[3] He broke the earlier record, held by Samuel Sevian at 9 years, 11 months, and 23 days,[4] by approximately 701 days. (That record was later broken by Abhimanyu Mishra who became expert at 7 years, 6 months, and 22 days)
On July 29, 2012, he became the youngest player ever to defeat a grandmaster (GM) in a standard time limit tournament game. It occurred in round 3 of the Washington International in Rockville, Maryland, when he defeated GM Larry Kaufman. Liang was 9 years, 111 days old at the time, breaking the previous record by about 2.5 months.[8] The record was previously held by Shah Hetul at the age of about 9 years, 6 months.[9] At the same time, Liang broke the USA record for the youngest to win against a GM by some months; the previous record having been held by Fabiano Caruana.[10][11] This record was later broken by 8-year-old Leonid Ivanovic, who defeated Milko Popchev in January 2024.[12][13]
On March 23, 2013, he became the youngest person ever to obtain a master's rating within the United States Chess Federation. While playing in the Midwest Open Team Chess Festival in Dayton, Ohio, his win over a Life Master in round 2 brought his estimated USCF rating to 2206. Liang was 17 days shy of his tenth birthday at the time of this achievement,[14] 10 days younger than the age at the previously existing record (held by Samuel Sevian, 7 days prior to his tenth birthday).[4] On September 2, 2015, Maximillian Lu broke Liang's record by 12 days.[15] At the 2013 World Youth Championships, which took place in Al Ain, Liang won the Under 10 section.
On June 30, 2014, at the age of 11 years and 92 days, while competing in the 2nd Annual DC International, he became the youngest American to achieve a norm for the title International Master (IM).[16] Liang earned his third and final IM norm in Dallas on November 25, 2015 at 12 years, 7 months and 6 days old, thus becoming the youngest American ever to qualify for the title of International Master.[17]
From July 8 to July 17, 2016, Liang participated in the U.S. Junior Closed Championship at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of St. Louis, Missouri. Liang achieved a score of 6/9, for second place behind Jeffery Xiong, who won with a score of 6½/9. He won four games, drew four, and lost one game to Xiong.
In May 2017, Liang earned his final two Grandmaster norms in back-to-back tournaments at the Spring Chess Classic in St. Louis (Group B) and the Chicago Open, with the latter won on May 29. He won the former tournament with a score of 7½/9 and ended up getting 6½/9 at the latter tournament to share 5th to 9th place. At the time, he became the third youngest player in the US to achieve the Grandmaster title in chess.[18] On July 17, 2017, Liang won the US Junior Closed Championship with a score of 6½/9. This earned him a spot in the 2018 US Chess Championship.[19][20] In October of 2017, he also was invited to attend the first ever Jamaican International Chess Festival, winning for his team "Raging Rooks" and winning a prize.[21][22][6]
In October 2022, Liang was invited to play in the US Chess Championship as a wild card, finishing 7.5/13 tied for 3rd place.[23] In March 2023, Awonder led his UChicago B team to their second consecutive US Amateur Team North Championship.[24]
In April 2023, Liang reached the World Top 100 for the first time, with a FIDE rating of 2651. In August 2024, Liang achieved his peak FIDE rating (2666) and World ranking (#65), shortly after winning the World Open chess tournament. [25]
Bughouse
Liang is also an accomplished Bughouse chess player. With partner Jeffery Xiong, he won the Bughouse World Championship in 2021 and 2022.[26] As of January 27, 2025, he was ranked #1 worldwide in Bughouse on chess.com, with a rating of 2928.[27]
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