Jeffery Xiong

Jeffery Xiong is one of the youngest Grandmasters in American chess history, having achieved the title at the age of 14 years and 6 months in 2015. The following year he won the World Junior Championship and in 2017 he was a member of the American squad which competed in the World Team Championship.

Two years later Xiong achieved his peak FIDE rating of 2712 and in 2020 and 2021 he was a member of U.S. teams that took bronze and silver in the Online Chess Olympiads, playing board one in the latter.

Post pandemic Xiong experienced a significant decline in his rating but more recently he has bounced back and had good performances in the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss and FIDE World Cup.

This year’s U.S. Chess Championship will be Xiong’s first since 2023 and he will enter the event as something of an unknown having not played any rated games in 2026.

In April 2025, Xiong was a second of Tan Zhongyi in the Women’s World Chess Championship 2025. He is an accomplished Bughouse chess player who won the Bughouse World Championship in 2021, 2022 and 2024 with Awonder Liang as his partner from 2020 to 2024.