Ju Wenjun

Ju Wenjun, born January 31, 1991 in Shanghai, China is a Chinese female chess player who holds the title of Grandmaster, the highest within the sport. Her victory in the Women's Grand Prix in 2016 qualified her to contest the Women's World Championship in a match held in May 2018 against fellow Chinese Tan Zhongyi, the 2017 champion.

The event was played best of ten games, the first 5 in Shanghai and the last five in Chongqing. JuWenjun led from the beginning of the match and finally beat Tan Zhongyi by a score of 5.5 to 4.5 (+3,-2,=5), thus proclaiming herself world chess champion.

In 2019 Ju Wenjun's reign as 17th world champion continued after she defeated in Vladivostok (Russia) GM Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia by 2.5:1.5 in the tiebreaker games just in time to celebrate with the title in her pocket the Chinese New Year.

It is her first participation in the Leon Magistral following in the wake of her compatriot and also former world champion Hou Yifan who played in Leon in 2014, the year her compatriot, the young Chinese GM Wei Yi won in the Magistral.

Wenjun joins her name to those of the best players in the history of chess who have taken part in the Magistral: the Polgar sisters and the former champion Hou Yifan.