Puchen Wang (born 20 January 1990) is a

New Zealand New Zealand () is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and List of islands of New Zealand, over 600 smaller islands. It is the List of isla ...

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

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 ...

. He became the New Zealand Champion, Rapid Champion and Lightning Champion in January 2007 when he was 17.

Chess career

Wang was New Zealand Junior Champion at the age of 11, and a winner in the 2005 and 2006 NZCF Grand Prix, topping both the Open and Junior sections. Wang has twice played for the New Zealand national team at the

Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...

s; in 2004, on 1st reserve board at the

36th Chess Olympiad The 36th Chess Olympiad (; ), organized by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tourna ...

Calvià Calvià () is a municipality on the island of Majorca, part of the Spanish autonomous community of the Balearic Islands. It is located in the southwestern part of the island of Majorca, between the Serra de Tramuntana and the Serra de Na Burgue ...

(+5 –3 =1); and in 2006, on 1st reserve board at the

37th Chess Olympiad The 37th Chess Olympiad (), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed ...

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

(+5 –1 =3). He has been selected for board 2 for the

38th Chess Olympiad The 38th Chess Olympiad (), organized by FIDE and comprising an open and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed to promote the game of chess, took place from 12 to 25 November 2008 in Dresden, Germany. There were 146 teams ...

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

in 2008, behind Grandmaster

Murray Chandler Murray Graham Chandler (born 4 April 1960, Wellington, New Zealand) is a New Zealand chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. In the 1980s, he gained British citizenship and represented England at six Chess Olympiads. He has since returned to Ne ...

. In May–June 2006, Wang gained the

FIDE 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 ...

title and an

IM norm IM or Im may refer to: Arts and entertainment * I.M, South Korean rapper and singer; member of boy band Monsta X * "I.M" (song), a song by Israeli singer Michael Ben David * Iron Maiden, a British heavy metal band * Iron Man, a comic book superh ...

at the

. He won in the 114th New Zealand Championship at Wanganui 2007, at the age of 17. In May 2007 he came away unbeaten in the Zonal Tournament of Oceania held in

Fiji Fiji, officially the Republic of Fiji, is an island country in Melanesia, part of Oceania in the South Pacific Ocean. It lies about north-northeast of New Zealand. Fiji consists of an archipelago of more than 330 islands—of which about ...

. He shared second place, behind Zhao Zong-Yuan of Australia, with a score of 6/9 that enabled him to be awarded the

(IM) title. He was invited to the Euwe Stimulus Tournament in

Arnhem Arnhem ( ; ; Central Dutch dialects, Ernems: ''Èrnem'') is a Cities of the Netherlands, city and List of municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality situated in the eastern part of the Netherlands, near the German border. It is the capita ...

, The Netherlands, 17–26 August 2007. It was an invitational tournament in the format of a nine-round Round Robin. Together with this group, ten players competed in a regional group. Players included Grandmasters

Dibyendu Barua Dibyendu Barua (born 27 October 1966) is an Indian chess grandmaster. He is a three-time Indian Chess Champion. He was the second Indian chess player, after Viswanathan Anand, second Bengali after Niaz Murshed, and third South Asian after ...

Oscar Panno Oscar Roberto Panno (born 17 March 1935) is an Argentine chess Grandmaster. Biography Panno was born in Buenos Aires. He won the 2nd World Junior Chess Championship in 1953, ahead of such future strong Grandmasters as Borislav Ivkov, Bent Lar ...

Friðrik Ólafsson Friðrik Ólafsson (26 January 1935 – 4 April 2025) was an Icelandic chess grandmaster. He was president of FIDE from 1978 to 1982. He was a six-time Icelandic Chess Champion and a two-time Nordic Chess Champion. Chess career Friðrik was ...

and

Nona Gaprindashvili Nona Gaprindashvili ( ka, ნონა გაფრინდაშვილი; born 3 May 1941) is a Georgian chess Grandmaster. Noted for her aggressive style of play, she was the women's world chess champion from 1962 to 1978, and in 1978 ...

. The tournament was won by

Amon Simutowe Amon Simutowe (born January 6, 1982) is a Zambian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. He is the first grandmaster from sub-Saharan Africa and the third black chess grandmaster in history, after Maurice Ashley and Pontus Carlsson. He holds a ...

, and Wang was placed third. He was not able to defend his New Zealand Champion title in January 2008 as he was due to sit an exam, but he did retain his Lightning title.HOWICK-PAKURANGA CHESS CLUB
/ref> For the year 2008, Wang is taking a

gap year A gap year, also known as a sabbatical year, is a period of time when students take a break from their studies, usually after completing high school or before beginning graduate school. During this time, students engage in a variety of educatio ...

before going to university to try to achieve the Grandmaster (GM) title. Wang will be travelling to Europe mid-February 2008 to play in several strong events to gain experience and gain opportunities to become New Zealand's second Grandmaster (after

). He is being supported and project managed in this by the

New Zealand Chess Federation The New Zealand Chess Federation (NZCF) is a chess federation in New Zealand. The first chess club in New Zealand was formed in September 1863 in Dunedin, while the New Zealand Chess Association came into being in the 1870s. The association, ref ...

, and there was a "launch" at the 115th New Zealand Chess Congress in January 2008 of "Project Grandmaster". The New Zealand Chess Federation is seeking to provide the best tournament format and funding vehicle to maximise his chances for success, which they estimate a budget of $50,000 is required. He began this European tour with the 24th Cappelle La Grande Open (16–23 February 2008) in Spain. Seeded 140th out of 612 players, he finished 71st with a score of 6/9 (+4, =4, -1) and tournament

performance rating The PR (performance rating, P-rating, or Pentium rating) system was a figure of merit developed by AMD, Cyrix, IBM Microelectronics and SGS-Thomson in the mid-1990s as a method of comparing their x86 processors to those of rival Intel. The idea ...

of 2425.Grille américaine finale après ronde 9
In 2014 he again became New Zealand Champion.

References

External links

Puchen Wang
chess games at 365Chess.com *
Howick Pakuranga Chess Club
includes details of Wang Puchen's progress and future events. {{DEFAULTSORT:Wang, Puchen 1990 births Living people Chess International Masters New Zealand chess players Chess Olympiad competitors New Zealand people of Chinese descent