Kong Xiangrui Height, Age, Family, Biography

Some Lesser Known Facts About Kong Xiangrui

• Kong Xiangrui was born in 2009 in Qingdao, China.

• On 14 February 2019, at the National Youth Chess Championship and the 27th Li Chengzhi Cup National Children Championship held in Nanjing, Kong finished runner up in the Boys Ding group.

• Around this period, he received an invitation from the Chinese Chess Academy Hangzhou Branch, one of the country’s leading training centres.

• His father quit his job without any hesitation and moved with him to Hangzhou.

• Kong has said his father left the final choice to him, and he chose to go.

• From 2020, Kong trained at the Hangzhou Intellectual Sports School under coach Ma Qun, along with youth coach Mou Ke.

• He has spoken about how this environment exposed the weak spots in his game and taught him to work on his own, without supervision.
  

  Kong Xiangrui during his childhood

• It was also in Hangzhou that his idol, Ding Liren, whom he calls Ren Ge or Brother Ren, joined some of the training sessions.

• On 17 October 2021, Kong won the Open group at the Second Zhisheng Intellectual Games, scoring six wins and one draw for a total of 6.5 points.

• On 6 November 2021, his team, Hangzhou Intellectual Sports School, beat Qingdao Qingwei Club by three games to one at the Second China City Chess League promotion tournament, and moved up to second place in the rankings.

• On 27 November 2022, Kong won the Open group title at the National Amateur Chess King Championship.

• On 13 April 2023, he won bronze at the FIDE World Chess Championship Zonal Tournament in China, finishing third in the qualifier.

• On 24 April 2023, at the National Chess Championship Individual Group B, he scored three wins and one draw for 3.5 points, and on 28 April he finished third, which earned him a place in the 2024 Individual Group A Championship.

• On 18 August 2023, Kong played board three for the Chinese team at the FIDE U16 Chess Olympiad.

• The team, guided by coach Wen Yang and including Xue Haowen, Xiao Tong and Lu Miaoyi, won gold without losing a single match, and Kong stayed undefeated on his board to claim the individual gold medal.

• In November 2023, playing for the Shanghai team, he helped win bronze in the junior men’s team event at the Fifth National Mind Sports Games.

• On 13 December 2023, at the Chinese Chess League Premier Division finals, Kong received the Rookie of the Year award.

• In the 2024 Chinese Chess League Premier Division regular season, Kong stayed undefeated through the first eight rounds, drawing with Zhao Jun, Lu Shanglei and Zeng Chongsheng, and beating Shen Fuyan and Nie Xinyang.

• In April 2025, defending his title at the Shanghai Bay Cup 2025 National Chess New Stars Tournament, Kong lost the final 0.5 to 2.5 against top seed Xiao Tong and settled for runner up.

• As of November 2025, his FIDE rating stood at 2511, placing him 49th in the world.

• He went into the final round tied for first place with Xu Xiangyu but had to settle for a draw against Lou Yiping, while Xu beat Li Di to take the title.
  

  Kong Xiangrui after winning the championship

• Kong’s performance rating of 2604 in that event earned him his first Grandmaster norm.

• On 23 May 2026, he finished second at the Shanghai Bay Cup 2026 National Chess New Stars Tournament.

• The Asian Individual Chess Championship, held in Ulaanbaatar, ran across nine rounds and ended on 6 June 2026.

• It marked the first time Mongolia hosted a top level Asian chess event, and the tournament had the backing of the Mongolian government and Prime Minister Uchral Nyam Osor.

• Going into the last round, Kong Xiangrui, Xiao Tong and Zhamsaran Tsydypov shared the lead with 6.5 points from eight games, half a point ahead of a group that included top seed Yu Yangyi.

• All three leaders drew their final games and ended on 7 points from 9 games. Savva Vetokhin beat Erdem Khubukshanov to join them, forcing a four way tie at the top.

• The title went to countback on average rating of opponents, and this favoured Kong Xiangrui, who took gold.

• Xiao Tong claimed silver and Tsydypov took bronze.

• All four players earned spots in the FIDE World Cup 2027. The gold medal in Mongolia earned Kong Xiangrui the Grandmaster title and a place in the Chinese national team for the 46th Chess Olympiad.

• He has often credited Ding Liren’s style, which he calls stable but tough, as the model for his own game, and he has said that if Chinese chess trains hard and gets the right opportunities, it can reach the top the way Indian chess has grown under Viswanathan Anand‘s system.