Awonder Liang

Awonder Liang is one of the brightest young stars in American chess. A prodigy who set numerous age group records in his youth, Liang is now starting to fulfill his potential as he moves into the world elite.

A tie for second in the U.S. Championship 2024 and a 50 percent score in the 2025 Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters event show that Liang can hold his own against the best players in the world. More recently he won the 2025 U.S. Masters and this June helped his team (Mr. Birdie and Friends) finish fourth in the 2026 FIDE World Team Rapid Championship in Hong Kong. Liang’s personal result, an undefeated 10 points from 12 games, was one of the best scores of the competition. He won the strong Rubinstein Memorial in Poland this past August.

Liang graduated with a major in finance from the University of Chicago. Besides being an elite player and first-rate student, he is also an excellent coach who seconded Carissa Yip to an outstanding performance at the 2024 Budapest Chess Olympiad and a solid result at the 2025 FIDE Women’s World Cup.

Liang and fellow Grandmaster Jeffery Xiong won the Bughouse (a chess variant) World Championship in 2021, 2022 and 2024.

Awonder Liang will make his debut for the U.S. Olympiad team this September in Uzbekistan.