Andrew Tang (born November 29, 1999) is an American

chess grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the t ...

. He is also a popular streamer, known online for his

speed chess Fast chess, also known as speed chess, is a type of chess in which each player is given less time than classical chess time controls allow. Fast chess is subdivided, by decreasing time controls, into rapid chess, blitz chess, and bullet chess. A ...

skills especially in

bullet A bullet is a kinetic projectile, a component of firearm ammunition that is shot from a gun barrel. They are made of a variety of materials, such as copper, lead, steel, polymer, rubber and even wax; and are made in various shapes and constru ...

(one minute), hyperbullet (30 seconds), and ultrabullet (15 seconds) time controls as well as for playing speed chess blindfolded.

Chess career

Tang began playing chess in preschool. He was instructed by

John Bartholomew John Bartholomew Jr (25 December 1831 – 30 March 1893) was a Scottish cartographer. Life Bartholomew was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. His father, John Bartholomew Sr, started the cartographical establishment in Edinburgh, and he was train ...

as he was growing up. He earned the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in 2014 by winning the North American Junior Chess Championship. Tang earned the title of Grandmaster in November 2017, when he achieved his final

norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...

and an

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

over 2500, both required for the title, in the Fall 2017 CCCSA GM Norm Invitational tournament, held in

Charlotte, North Carolina Charlotte ( ) is the List of municipalities in North Carolina, most populous city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the county seat of Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, Mecklenburg County. The population was 874,579 at the 2020 United ...

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...

awarded him the title in April 2018. In December 2018, he participated in the

World Rapid Chess Championship The World Rapid Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under fast chess, rapid time controls. Prior to 2012, FIDE gave such recognition to a limited number of tournaments, with non-FIDE reco ...

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg, formerly known as Petrograd and later Leningrad, is the List of cities and towns in Russia by population, second-largest city in Russia after Moscow. It is situated on the Neva, River Neva, at the head of the Gulf of Finland ...

. Initially seeded 190th, Tang achieved a good result, scoring 8.5 points out of 15 rounds, and placing 59th. In the tournament, he also played his first live game against world champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Carlsen is a five-time World Chess Championship, World Chess Champion, five-time World Rapid Chess Championship, World Rapid Chess Champio ...

. In the 2019 U.S. Junior Championship, Tang placed 4th out of 10 with 5/9. In January 2020, Tang tied for second place with a score of 6.5/9 in the Charlotte Open, held in Charlotte, North Carolina, tying with GM

Cemil Can Ali Marandi Cemil Can Ali Marandi (born 17 January 1998) is a Turkish chess player who received the FIDE title of Grandmaster in 2017. Biography Cemil Can Ali Marandi repeatedly participated in European Youth Chess Championships and World Youth Chess Champ ...

, GM

Akshat Chandra Akshat Chandra (born May 28, 1999) is an American chess player. He started playing Chess during a visit to India in 2009 when he was nine years old. In 2015, he won the US National K-12 Championship and was also the US Junior Champion, the firs ...

, GM

Ulvi Bajarani Ulvi Bajarani (; born January 27, 1995) is an Azerbaijani chess Grandmaster. He received the FIDE Master title in 2005, the International Master title in 2010, and the Grandmaster Title in 2013. Chess career He started his chess career in 2000 ...

, and IM

Aaron Grabinsky Aaron Grabinsky is an American chess player. Career In April 2014, he played in the USCF K-12 National Championship, where he became a National Master and the only scholastic master from Oregon. In December 2015, he tied for first place with J ...

. On October 1, 2020, Tang signed with the esports organization

Cloud9 Cloud9 Esports, Inc., or simply Cloud9 (C9), is an American professional esports company based in Santa Monica, California. The company was originally founded as a professional ''League of Legends'' team by Jack and Paullie Etienne in May 2013 ...

using the online ID penguingm1. Andrew Tang also competed in the 2021 Bullet Chess Championship Presented By SIG hosted by

chess.com Chess.com is an internet chess server and social networking website. One of the largest chess platforms in the world, the site operates on a freemium model in which some features are available for free, and others are available via subscription ...

. There he competed against GMs

Hikaru Nakamura Christopher Hikaru NakamuraNihal Sarin Nihal Sarin (born 13 July 2004) is an Indian chess grandmaster and chess prodigy. In 2018, he passed the Elo rating of 2600 at 14 years old, which at the time made him the third youngest player in history to do so. As a junior player, Nihal ...

Daniel Naroditsky Daniel Naroditsky (born November 9, 1995), often referred to as Danya, is an American chess grandmaster, author, and commentator. Chess career Born in San Mateo, California, Naroditsky learned chess at age six from his father. He was soon taki ...

and

Alireza Firouzja Alireza Firouzja (, ; born 18 June 2003) is an Iranian and French Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster. Firouzja is the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE Elo rating system, rating of 2800, beating the previous record set by Magnus Carls ...

, among others. He finished in 2nd place, losing 5–11 to Firouzja in the final. He again participated in the competition's following-year edition, and again finished in 2nd place, losing 11–8 to Nakamura in the Grand Final. Andrew Tang won the 2023 US Open. He and GM Alexey Sorokin both won their ninth round games to tie for first place, but Tang won the Armageddon playoff. Tang was subsequently featured on the cover of the December 2023 issue of ''Chess Life''. In 2024, Tang was inducted into the Minnesota Chess Hall of Fame, by the Minnesota State Chess Association. Tang streams chess live on

Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...

, preferring fast bullet chess games of 15-, 30-, or 60-second chess with no increment. He has beaten the Lichess

Stockfish Stockfish is unsalted fish, especially cod, dried by cold air and wind on wooden racks (which are called "hjell" in Norway) on the foreshore. The drying of food is the world's oldest known preservation method, and dried fish has a storage li ...

engine successively from level 1 through 8 in ultrabullet time control. He has won the Lichess Titled Arena five times as of December 2021.

Personal life

Tang was born in

Naperville, Illinois Naperville ( ) is a city in DuPage County, Illinois, DuPage and Will County, Illinois, Will counties in the U.S. state of Illinois. It is a southwestern suburb of Chicago located west of the city on the DuPage River. As of the 2020 United State ...

, but his family moved to Minnesota when he was eight. He graduated from

Wayzata High School Wayzata High School is a comprehensive public high school in Plymouth, Minnesota, United States, a suburb of Minneapolis. The high school, operated by Wayzata Public Schools, had about 3711 students in grades 9 to 12 as of 10/1/23, making it Mi ...

Plymouth, Minnesota Plymouth is a city in Hennepin County in the U.S. state of Minnesota. A suburb in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul metropolitan area, the city is about west of downtown Minneapolis. The population was 81,026 at the 2020 census, making it Minnes ...

, and attended

Princeton University Princeton University is a private university, private Ivy League research university in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. Founded in 1746 in Elizabeth, New Jersey, Elizabeth as the College of New Jersey, Princeton is the List of Colonial ...

, where he majored in Operations Research and Financial Engineering. After graduating, he was hired as a quantitative trader by SIG.

References

External links

* * * * * *
Andrew Tang
chess games and profile at Chess-DB.com * {{DEFAULTSORT:Tang, Andrew 1999 births Living people American chess players Chess Grandmasters Sportspeople from Naperville, Illinois People from Plymouth, Minnesota American Twitch (service) streamers Cloud9 (esports) players American sportspeople of Chinese descent Princeton University alumni