Awonder Liang

Awonder Liang is one of the bright young stars of American chess. A prodigy who set numerous age group records in his youth, Awonder is now starting to fulfill his potential. The past two years have seen his FIDE rating rise over 75 points and he is now ranked among the top 25 players in the world. 

A tie for second in the U.S. Championship 2024 and a 50 percent score in the 2025 Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters event show that Awonder can hold his own against elite players. More recently he won the 2025 U.S. Masters.

Awonder majored in finance at the University of Chicago and is now a graduate student at Webster University. 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 Jeffrey Xiong won the Bughouse (a chess variant) World Championship in 2021, 2022 and 2024.