Qiyu Zhou

WGM Qiyu Zhou [pronounced Chee-you Jo], born in 2000, is a Canadian chess player who has competed for Canada at the Women's Chess Olympiad since 2014 and who won the Canadian women's championship in 2016.

Qiyu learned to play chess at the age of four in France. In late 2004, the family moved to Finland, and Qiyu won the Finnish Youth Chess Championships five times (in 2005, 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010) in the U10 Open section. Also in 2010, she won the Nordic School Chess Championships in the U11 Open division in Sweden. In 2008, she won the silver medal in the U8 Girls section at the World Youth Chess Championship in Vung Tàu, Vietnam.

In 2011, Qiyu transferred chess federations from Finland to Canada. She won the Canadian Youth Chess Championship in 2012 and 2013, in the Girls U-12 and Girls U-14 sections respectively. She won the Girls U-14 World Youth Championships in Durban, South Africa, 2014.

Also in 2014, Zhou made her debut at the Women's Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway. She played board four for the Canadian team scoring 6½/9 points. In the same year, she also took part in the World Youth Under-16 Chess Olympiad in Gyor, Hungary playing board four for team Canada, which finished fifth. She finished first in the U-18 Girls category at the North American Youth Chess Championships in 2015 Toluca, Mexico. As a result, she was automatically awarded by FIDE the title Woman International Master (WIM). In September 2016, Zhou won the Canadian women's championship and as a result, qualified to play in the Women's World Chess Championship 2017. You can watch a speech she did on how to achieve one’s goals:

Recent news

Nankai wins in Nankai!

12/7/2019 – The Winner of the World Prestigious University Chess Invitational Went to Nankai University Team 1! Headed by Wang Yue (2710), the team performed amazingly against many strong universities. University tournaments are no joke, with many GMs and IMs competing in Nankai over a four day period. | Photo: Yi Liu

"Prestigious University Chess Invitational" taking place in Tianjin

11/28/2019 – Twelve prestigious universities from the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Japan and China have sent chess squads to Tianjin. Nankai University is hosting the event as part of the celebrations of its 100-year anniversary. WGM QIYU ZHOU is in the coastal metropolis representing the University of Toronto. She sent us a pictorial report of her experience so far. | Pictured: Representatives of each university during the opening ceremony. | Photo: Liu Yi

Ivy League Chess Challenge redux

11/16/2019 – The 2nd Ivy League Chess Challenge was successfully held in Toronto, Canada from November 8th to 10th. With the tournament held over the course of three days, many exciting games were played, and numerous new friendships were made. QIYU ZHOU reports that this tournament is special because it is played by some of the top universities in the world! | Pictured: (L to R) Joseph Bellissimo, Sean Lei (current Treasurer of the Hart House Chess Club, and also played as a sub for one game on the team!), Mark Plotkin, arbiter Weiwen Leung, Advait Patel, and your author, Qiyu Zhou | Photo: Panagiotis Tsialas

Do chess playing children perform better in school?

10/23/2019 – Islam et al’s research paper on “The Effects of Chess Instruction on Academic and Non-Cognitive Outcomes” uses experimental findings to tell us playing chess does, in fact, make one perform better in other academic fields compared to those that do not play chess. However, it is probably not in the way you think. QIYU ZHOU reviews the findings.

Toronto is king of the CUCC

1/16/2019 – We recently covered the larger Pan-American Intercollegiate Championship, now our Canadian contributor QIYU ZHOU reports on the Canadian University Chess Championship (CUCC) which was won by the University of Toronto last weekend. | Pictured: Toronto A team: Joseph Bellissimo, Qiyu Zhou, Mark Plotkin, James Fu (not pictured: Zehn Nasir) | Photo: Adrian Santhakumar

Princeton wins Ivy Chess Challenge

11/30/2018 – The inaugural Ivy Chess Challenge was the one of the strongest collegiate tournament to be ever held in North America, after the Pan-American Collegiate Championships. Though the name is a bit misleading, as only three out of the six teams were Ivy Leagues, the tournament nevertheless boasted very strong chess-players, on both rating and academics. QIYU ZHOU was there representing the host University of Toronto and sends this report. | Photo: Changong Yu

Pattern recognition in chess

5/30/2018 – Is there a correlation between the strength in chess of players and their ability to recall a position in chess using short-term memory? This was the research question of a budding young scientist, QIYU ZHOU, who gave professional and casual chess players positions to study and then attempt to reconstruct them within 30 seconds. Her results are meticulously documented in a paper we are pleased to publish. At the end, there is an appeal to our readers to help with associated material.

Has the number of draws in chess increased?

3/21/2018 – People are generally worried about draws, which are often considered “boring”, where games may last up to six hours. To the common viewer (non-chess player), this may seem dull, and many believe this has led to a decline in sponsorship. But what do the statistics tell us? Using data now available, Qiyu Zhou, a remarkably young scientist has undertaken a thorough study of the numbers and provides a paper on her findings.

First Jamaica International Festival

10/19/2017 – The first Jamaican International Chess Festival brought four strong youngsters to promote chess on the beautiful island of Jamaica: Awonder Liang, Akshat Chandra, Akshita Gorti and Qiyu Zhou — all up-and-coming players with notable achievements. They gave speeches, played simuls, blitz and rapid chess for the purpose of inspiring youth in Jamaica. Qiyu Zhou gives a first-hand account. | Photo: Changrong Yu

2015 North American Junior Championships

8/14/2015 – This event was staged in the multicultural city of Kitchener, Canada from July 26 to 30, and attracted 65 players from around North America to compete in the open section and girls section. Neither of the top seeds placed with a medal. One of them, Qiyu Zhou, sent us a lovely report. We dug into her background and pulled up some inspiring material that left us speechless. | Photos: John Upper and Penny Yu
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