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Master profile

Xu Chao

徐超

By the Xiangqi Arena editorial team ·

Games
359
Era covered
1997–2007
Archive record
105W · 175D · 79L

The player

Xu Chao, born in Wujiang, Jiangsu in 1981, is the 2017 national individual champion and the 2019 world champion, crowned in Vancouver. Named a grandmaster in 2017, he had been a national youth champion two decades earlier and helped China to the 2019 world team title.

The chess press dubbed him a 'defence expert' for his tenacious counterattacking style. He played for the Jiangsu team throughout his career. The game here shows how quickly that solid style could turn into a knockout when the chance came.

Xu Chao - Xu Tianhong, 2007

2007 Yitai Cup National Individual Championship · 2007 · Xu Chao (red) vs Xu Tianhong (black)

Xu Chao, the Jiangsu grandmaster, takes red against former national champion Xu Tianhong - and wins in just forty-three plies, one of the shortest decisive games in the whole collection.

The first soldiers clash on move twenty-one and the exchanges are immediate and heavy, six in ten moves. Xu Chao emerges from the melee a soldier up with two chariots still on and every piece working; Xu Tianhong resigns. Sharp, efficient, and over almost before it began.

Move 0 of 43

Red won · 22 moves

The starting position.

Key moments

All the moves

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