The people behind the game
Ju Wenjun
A model of patience and resilience in match play. Her 2025 victory over Tan Zhongyi secured a fifth world title.
- Born
- 1991
- Country connections
- China
At the board
The games. The ideas.
Explore classic encounters and championship battles. Play every move, or jump straight to the moments that tell the story.
2018 · Women’s world championship · Game 3
Ju Wenjun builds a lead
Ju’s third-game victory in the 2018 match is a compact example of activity on the d-file and an exposed king.
Read the position
Every move sets the scene.
Use the controls to explore the full game, or select an annotated moment below. Each explanation describes the position immediately after its highlighted move.
Complete move list 27 moves
The journey
A remarkable path.
Ju first won the women’s world title in May 2018. She retained it in the November 2018 knockout championship and in matches in 2020, 2023 and 2025. Those five championship victories form a single continuous reign. [1]
From the photographic archive Explore the championship record →The championship record
Time with the crown.
- 2018–presentWomen’s world championship
Reigns are periods of title ownership, not a count of championship victories. Open-ended reigns reflect the record checked on 18 October 2026.
From the archive
A life in photographs.
Sources & credits
Biographical details and title records checked . Country connections describe the player’s career and background, rather than a live federation listing.
- Biographical reference · Wikipedia ↗
- Title chronology · FIDE women’s championship archive ↗
- 2025 match result · Official championship website ↗
Portrait: Frans Peeters · CC BY-SA 2.0. Displayed in monochrome and cropped.
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