Ruifeng Li

Grandmaster Ruifeng Li is one of the top junior players in the world. He received his IM title in 2016 and the GM title in 2017.

Ruifeng started exploring chess when he was 5 years old in Michigan. He won the Arkansas State Championship in 2011 at the age of 8. Later the same year he was the silver medalist in the World Youth Chess Championships under-10 section.

His early success landed him a spot in the Young Stars program in 2012 — an elite youth training program designed to maximize the potential of rising chess prodigies in the U.S., coached by Garry Kasparov.

2016 was one of the best years in his chess career. He won the North American Junior Championship, National Open, and Philadelphia Open, also tied for first at 26th Annual North American Open. His best results include several draws during major chess tournaments against world class players such as Fabiano Caruana, Gata Kamsky, Luke McShane, and Alexey Dreev.

Recent news

Hovhannes Gabuzyan grabs North American Open

1/5/2020 – Close to a hundred chess players spent the last days of 2019 participating in the 29th edition of the North American Open at the Bally's Casino Resort in Las Vegas. Hovhannes Gabuzyan and Zviad Izoria finished atop the standings on 7 out of 9 — Gabuzyan took home the bonus prize money reserved for the winner, as he had a higher score in the second tiebreak criterion. GM RUIFENG LI sent us a report with expert analyses and a selection of noteworthy games. | Photos: Crystal Jiuzhou Gu

Nyzhnyk nabs National Open

6/24/2019 – Grandmaster RUIFENG LI reports and annotates games from Las Vegas as Ukrainian GM Illya Nyzhnyk won the newly lengthened 9-round National Open. Nyzhnyk's five wins and four draws were good enough for clear 1st place and the USD $8,000 prize. Alejandro Ramirez was the best scoring US player. Pictured: Organizers Janelle and Alan Losoff, with the new National Open Champion. | Photo: Tim Hanks

Nyzhnyk nails it

7/13/2018 – At the annual World Open in Philadelphia, 21-year-old, Webster University student Illya Nyzhnyk from Ukraine scored one of the biggest wins of his young career, by taking clear first and the USD $20,500 first prize with an impressive tally of 7½ from 9 games in a field of 32 GMs and 24 IMs. Among the GMs was RUIFENG LI, who filed this report with games and photos from the massive 1,223 player open (over nine sections).

Meier shows class at Fall Classic

9/29/2017 – German GM Georg Meier narrowly won the A-group of the latest invitational tournament hosted by the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis. The tournament brought together 20 GMs and IMs in two sections. In the B-group GM Josh Friedel secured tournament victory with an impressive 6½/9 score. Grandmaster Ruifeng Li was there, and sends his account of the round-by-round action. | Photos: Austin Fuller, CCSCSL

Li and Dragun divvy up Southwest Open

9/14/2017 – The Southwest Open is an annual held in Dallas, Texas, over Labor Day weekend (USA). This year for the first time, and International section took place with around 30 strong Masters, IMs and GMs. The young American and newly minted Grandmaster Ruifeng Li was among them, and ended up in shared first with Polish GM Kamil Dragun, who is studying in Texas. Ruifeng sent us this personal account of his exploits. | Photos: James Stallings (Below: WIM Mariam Danelia and unknown photo-bomber)
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