李奕衡

English

LI Yiheng is a Hong Kong chess player born in the late 2000s. He began learning chess at the age of five, in his third year of kindergarten, and the following year won his first local age-group title, after which his strength rose quickly, a sign of his early promise. At about ten he joined the Hong Kong team and competed at the under-16 Chess Olympiad in Azerbaijan, gaining international experience. In 2023 he finished fourth in a field of fifty-two at the Asian Games selection tournament held on 10 April, earning selection for the Hong Kong, China delegation and becoming, at just eleven, the youngest member of the territory's squad for the 19th Asian Games in Hangzhou, his age drawing considerable public attention. A mild, steady player who aims to win from solid positions and keeps a poker face at the board, he reads tactics books daily and plays online, and has played a single game lasting nearly six hours. In 2025, at about twelve, he was named the best Hong Kong player in the open section of the Hong Kong World Open, having by then earned the Candidate Master title. He also enjoys tennis, basketball and table tennis, and aims to become a Candidate Master within two years and a Grandmaster in the longer term; his rapid rise marks him out as one of the leading figures of the new generation of Hong Kong chess.