Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Prodigy Miaoyi
Lu Miaoyi (born 2010) is a Chinese WGM (Woman Grandmaster) and chess prodigy who belongs to a family of chess players. Her mother Xu Yuanyuan holds also the title of WGM. She won the Chinese Women’s Championship in 2003. And was 1997 World U16 Girls Chess Champion and 2000 World Junior Girls U20 Champion. Her father Xu Tao is an amateur chess player but as a child, he won the Beijing Junior Chess Championship. And her grandfather was also an amateur chess player and a xiangqi (Chinese chess) champion.
At the age of three Lu had her first contact with chess at her mother’s chess club. She played her first FIDE-rated tournament st the age of five. When she became seven, her mother began formally teaching her how to play chess.
Following her mother’s steps Lu won in 2024 her first Chinese Women’s Championship, exactly 21 years after her mother did the same.
Lu attracted the attention of the chess community at the age of 10. After taking part in international tournaments in the Czech Republic, Poland and Serbia, she reached a rating of 2200. Because of the Covid pandemic, Miaoyi took a break from school and traveled to Serbia where she played chess full time making remarkable progress.
In the Serbian Women’s League in November 2022 Lu earned her first WGM norm. In that tournament, Lu defeated the Armenian IM Lilit Mkrtchian in today’s beautiful miniature.
Lu had an explosive start to 2024, playing tournaments with great success. In Reykjavik Open (March, 2024) she faced six GMs scoring 50%, including a draw against veteran GM Vasyl Ivanchuk. In the period Jan-Mar, 2024, Miaoyi increased her rating by 185 points reaching 2437.
Because of her outstanding progression, the popular Youtuber Levy Rozman commented: “She’s just on an astronomical pace. If we keep going on the way we are right now, we might be talking about a potential world champion contender.”
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