Chen Zifan (, born 17 September 1995) is a Chinese professional

snooker Snooker (pronounced , ) is a cue sport played on a rectangular table covered with a green cloth called baize, with six pockets, one at each corner and one in the middle of each long side. First played by British Army officers stationed in Ind ...

player who, in 2023, received a five-year ban from professional competition after committing match-fixing offences. In December 2022, Chen was suspended from the professional tour amid a match-fixing investigation. In January 2023, he was charged with fixing matches on the tour. In June 2023, he was banned from professional competition until 20 December 2027.

Career

Chen Zifan started to play snooker aged 10, helped by his uncle, who ran a club in Xi'an. At first, his parents were reluctant, but after showing great talent, they allowed him to quit mainstream school at the age of 11 to concentrate on snooker. In 2008, Chen won third place in Chinese National Junior Championship. Coached by former professional

Liu Song Song, known as Liu Song (), Former Song (前宋) or Song of (the) Southern Dynasty (南朝宋) in historiography, was an Dynasties in Chinese history, imperial dynasty of China and the first of the four Northern and Southern dynasties#Southern ...

, he began playing in minor-ranking Asian

Players Tour Championship The Players Tour Championship was a series of snooker tournaments comprising some minor-ranking events played in Europe, and an Asian leg comprising some minor-ranking events in Asia. The series concluded with a Grand Final, where qualification ...

events. In 2012 he reached the last 64 in the Event 1 in

Zhangjiagang Zhangjiagang (), formerly Shazhou County (), is a county-level city under the administration of Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China and one of the many ports along the Yangtze river. With 1,246,762 inhabitants as of the 2010 census, the city is ...

where he lost 4–2 to Michael White. In 2013, he won the China Youth Championship, beating Lu Ning. His strong results in junior tournaments earned him a wildcard appearance at the World Open. There he defeated Sanderson Lam before losing 5–0 to

Judd Trump Judd Trump (born 20 August 1989) is an English professional snooker player, a former world champion and former world number one. Widely regarded as one of the sport's most talented players, he is currently sixth on the list of all-time ranki ...

in the last 64. He was also a wildcard at the China Open, where he was defeated 5–2 by compatriot

Yu Delu Yu Delu (; born 11 October 1987) is a former professional snooker player from the People's Republic of China. He is currently serving a 10 years and 9 months ban for match-fixing from 25 May 2018 until 24 February 2029. The ban was announced on ...

. He also qualified for the 2016 International Championship, defeating professional

Tian Pengfei Tian Pengfei (, born 16 August 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He began his career by playing the Challenge Tour in 2004, at the time the second-level professional tour. Tian played on the Main Tour in 2006 and competed on the Wo ...

6–3, and only narrowly losing in the first round to 6–5 to

Liang Wenbo Liang Wenbo (; born 25 March 1987) is a Chinese professional snooker player based at the Oracle Snooker Club, Abingdon, Oxfordshire, England. Liang, who plays left-handed, has reached one Triple Crown final, made three Masters appearances, and ...

. He moved to Shenzhen, where he was coached by Roger Leighton at the Wiraka Academy. Between 2014 and 2017, Chen came very close to professional qualification. He finished 5th on the Asian Order of Merit in 2014-15 and 3rd in the Chinese amateur rankings in 2015-16 - in both cases just one place short of qualification. He also had an unsuccessful attempt at Q School in 2016. Chen described these near-misses as 'very painful'. Chen Zifan finally turned professional for the 2017–18 season after defeating Ben Jones 4–1 in the final round of Q-School, Event 2.

2017/2018 season

Chen's first match as a professional resulted in a 4-2 win over Ross Muir to qualify for the

Riga Masters The Riga Masters or Riga Open until 2016 (also known as the Kaspersky Riga Masters for sponsorship reasons) is a Snooker world rankings, ranking snooker tournament. The tournament started in 2014 as a part of the Players Tour Championship and was ...

. However, a VISA problem meant he was unable to travel to the main competition. He followed this with a 5-3 win over

Dominic Dale Dominic Dale (born Christopher Dale on 29 December 1971) is a Welsh professional snooker player and snooker commentator and presenter for the BBC and Eurosport. Career Dale was born in Coventry, England. He won the Welsh Amateur Championship, ...

in the China Championship. His best wins of the season were against

Barry Hawkins Barry Hawkins (born 23 April 1979) is an English professional snooker player from Ditton, Kent. He turned professional in 1996, but only rose to prominence in the 2004–05 snooker season, when he reached the last 16 of the 2004 UK Championsh ...

and

Shaun Murphy Shaun Peter Murphy (born 10 August 1982) is an English professional snooker player who won the 2005 World Championship. Nicknamed "The Magician", Murphy is noted for his straight cue action and his long potting. Born in Harlow, Essex and ra ...

. Chen's first

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

was a major disappointment. After the first session he trailed 9-0 against Noppon Saengkham. On resumption he won a respotted black to avoid the whitewash, punched the table in relief, and was warned by the referee. Saengkham won the match 10-1. Chen finished the season ranked 105.

2018/2019 season

Chen's second season was a disaster. He won only 3 of his 20 matches, including 2 against amateurs. But he again beat

(in the Northern Ireland Open). He finished the season ranked 101 and was relegated from the tour. In May, Chen Zifan came through Q-School - Event 2 dropping only 3 frames in his six matches to earn a new two-year card on the

World Snooker Tour The World Snooker Tour (WST) is the main professional snooker tour, consisting of approximately 128 players competing on a circuit of up to 28 tournaments each season. The World Snooker Tour is administered by World Snooker Ltd, the commercial ar ...

for the 2019–20 and

2020–21 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

seasons.

2019/2020 season

At the

Chen reached the last-16 for the first time by beating Andres Petrov and

Ben Woollaston Ben Woollaston (born 14 May 1987) is an English professional snooker player from Leicester. His sole professional title came at the minor-ranking third Players Tour Championship event in 2011. Woollaston's only ranking event final came at th ...

. He then lost to

Yan Bingtao Yan Bingtao (, born 16 February 2000) is a Chinese professional snooker player. He is the youngest player to win the Amateur World Snooker Championship after defeating Muhammad Sajjad 8–7. Having qualified to compete on the main tour for ...

. With the COVID-19 outbreak, the snooker season was suspended and Chen returned to China. Facing a multitude of travel and administrative hurdles, Chen did not return until the start of the next season, missing the

. He finished the season ranked 105.

2020/2021 season

Chen's best performance was a run to the 3rd round of the

UK Championship The UK Championship is a professional ranking snooker tournament. It is one of snooker's prestigious Triple Crown events, along with the World Championship and the Masters. It is usually held at the Barbican Centre, York. Ronnie O'Sulliva ...

, after 6-5 victories over Yuan Sijun and

. He then lost 6-1 to

Anthony McGill Anthony McGill (born 5 February 1991) is a Scottish professional snooker player. He is a practice partner of retired snooker player Alan McManus. McGill turned professional in 2010, after finishing fourth in the 2009/2010 PIOS rankings. He wo ...

, but the ranking points gained played a major part in his tour survival. The following week at the Scottish Open he lost 4-0 to Mark King without potting a single ball. At the

, he needed a win to ensure professional survival via the 1-year list. This he achieved by beating Mitchell Mann 6-5, once again punching the table. He then lost 6-1 to

Stuart Bingham Stuart Bingham (born 21 May 1976) is an English professional snooker player who is a former world and Masters champion. Bingham won the 1996 World Amateur Championship but enjoyed little sustained success in the early part of his professional ...

. Chen finished the season ranked 76.

Personal life

During the season, Chen Zifan lives in

Sheffield Sheffield is a city status in the United Kingdom, city in South Yorkshire, England, whose name derives from the River Sheaf which runs through it. The city serves as the administrative centre of the City of Sheffield. It is Historic counties o ...

where he practices at the Victoria Snooker Academy, managed by Victoria Shi.

Performance and rankings timeline

References

External links

Chen Zifan
at ''worldsnooker.com''
Chen Zifan at ''CueTracker.net: Snooker Results and Statistic Database''Profile on Snooker.org
{{DEFAULTSORT:Chen, Zifan 1992 births Sportspeople from Xi'an Living people Chinese snooker players 20th-century Chinese people 21st-century Chinese people