Wang Yue (; born 31 March 1987) is a Chinese chess player. In 2004, he became China's 18th grandmaster at the age of 17. He is China's first player ever to break into the top 10 of the FIDE world rankings and was the highest-ever rated Chinese player, with a peak rating of 2756, until August 2015, when this record was broken by Ding Liren.
In October 2007, Wang became the first Chinese player and third Asian player to cross the 2700 Elo rating mark. In October 2008, he became the world No. 11, the highest-ranking a Chinese player had ever achieved, surpassing the previous record of 17th by Ye Jiangchuan set in 2000. In January 2010, he became the first Chinese world top-ten player with a world ranking of 9. His highest world ranking to date is No. 8 in the May 2010 rating list with a rating of 2752.
In the FIDE Grand Prix 2008–2010, he was a last round victory over Teimour Radjabov away from joining Levon Aronian as an automatic qualifier for the Candidates Tournament of the World Chess Championship 2012 cycle; however, Radjabov secured a draw which allowed him to win the final qualifying position.
In 2008, Wang was a Communication Studies student at the College of Liberal Arts of Nankai University in Tianjin. He also played for his university club chess team.
Early life
Wang was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi, where he learned to play chess at the age of four. He would during summer every day after dinner watch people play xiangqi in the streets. When he was 5, with the support of his parents he started to receive chess training at school and made rapid progress. When he was 9 he joined the National Junior Team and won the Li Chengzhi () National Children's Cup. At 12, he joined the National Team and at 15 he joined Tianjin City Club.
Career
Wang has participated in several national team summit matches, including against the United States (2002), Russia (2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009), France (2006) and the UK (2007).
1999–2005: Junior player
In 1999, Wang won the under-12 category of the World Youth Chess Championship in Oropesa del Mar, Spain.
In 2000, he came second in the U-14 category World Youth Championship, which was also held in Oropesa del Mar, to Alexander Areshchenko. That year, in Artek, Ukraine, and again in 2002 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, he competed for the China national chess team at the World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiads. In 2000, the team came 9th, with Wang scoring 6/9 (+4−1=4) with a 2430 performance. The 2002 team won gold and he also achieved on first board an individual gold medal for his stunning result of 8½/10 (+7−0=3) with a 2657 performance. He was supported by teammate Zhao Jun who had an 80% score on board 2.
In July–August 2002, at the Second China–USA Match in Shanghai, Wang scored 2½/4 (+1−0=3) with a performance of 2526. He played Hikaru Nakamura once in the last round which was a draw, and all the other first three games were against Vinay Bhat. China won 20½–19½ overall.
In April 2004, Wang scored the highest with 9/11 at the Chinese Men's Team Championships in Jinan. In August of that year, at the 2nd China–Russia Match in Moscow, Wang scored 3/6 (+1−1=4) with a 2670 performance. China won the match 37½–34½. Continuing, from October 14–31, when Wang became a FIDE master, he competed in his debut Olympiad in Calvià, Majorca scoring 8/12 (+5−1=6) on the first reserve board with a 2621 performance. The team finished in 24th place and Wang finished on 16th in the individual board standings. At this event he achieved his last GM norm and became China's then youngest grandmaster. December 18–23 saw him at the Tigran Petrosian Memorial Internet Tournament, with games starting at 12:00 noon in Paris, 14:00 in St. Petersburg. 15:00 in Yerevan and 19:00 in Beijing. Each country faced each of the other three countries two times for a total of six rounds. Fischer time control will be used (1 hour 30 minutes plus 15 minutes added at move 40; 30 second increments are added after every move). The event took place on ICC. China won the Tigran Petrosian Memorial Internet Tournament. Their final round match against Russia came down to the wire. The Russians led 2–1 but Wang beat Vadim Zvjaginsev to tie the match and win the event for the Chinese. Final Scores: China 14–France 13–Russia 13–Armenia 8. China players: (average rating: 2590) GM Bu Xiangzhi 2615 GM Ni Hua 2611 GM Zhang Zhong 2596 GM Wang Yue 2536