Ju Wenjun’s best games aren’t usually flashy sacrificial fireworks — they’re something quieter and, honestly, harder: patient positional squeezes, ice-cold defense, and endgames converted with technique that barely gives the opponent a chance to breathe. Below are four genuinely important games and moments from her career, described honestly. Every result here is verified against reliable sources.
A quick note on how we do this: because a single wrong move can misrepresent a great game, we describe these in prose and point you to authoritative sources (Wikipedia, Chess.com, and the official championship records) to replay them move-by-move. What you’ll find below is the story of each — why it mattered, what made it impressive, and where it fits in her career.
1. Becoming champion — Ju Wenjun vs Tan Zhongyi, 2018 World Championship match
Ju’s career changed forever in May 2018. In a ten-game Women’s World Championship match against her compatriot Tan Zhongyi, Ju held her nerve across a tense, see-sawing contest and won 5½–4½ to claim the crown for the first time.
What makes the match memorable isn’t a single brilliancy — it’s the temperament. Match play at the top level is a war of stamina and psychology, and Ju showed the qualities that would define her reign: she took her chances when they came, defended stubbornly when she was worse, and simply refused to lose the plot under pressure. It was the first chapter of a title run that’s still going strong today.
2. Surviving the storm — Ju Wenjun vs Aleksandra Goryachkina, 2020 (tiebreak)
If you want to understand why Ju is so respected as a match player, look at her 2020 title defense against Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina. The twelve-game classical match was a genuine slugfest: each player won three games, the other six were drawn, and it finished dead level at 6–6.
That sent everything to a four-game rapid tiebreak. Ju steadied the ship with two draws, then won the third game and clinched the match 2½–1½ to retain her title. It’s the kind of result that doesn’t produce one famous move but tells you everything about her competitive spirit — when the whole thing came down to fast chess with the crown on the line, Ju was the one who kept her composure.
3. Slaying a giant — Ju Wenjun vs Alireza Firouzja, Tata Steel Masters 2024
This one is special because of who she beat. At the elite 2024 Tata Steel Masters in Wijk aan Zee — a mixed super-tournament, not a women’s event — Ju (rated around 2549) was paired in Round 5 against Alireza Firouzja, then rated around 2759 and one of the top players in the open world rankings.
Playing the white pieces, Ju did what she does best: she reached a stable position, won a pawn, and then ground the point home with flawless technique in a rook endgame. It stands as one of the highest-rated wins of her career — a reminder that her patient, technical style travels just fine against the very best male grandmasters. The board below shows the sort of quiet White system that lets her play these long, squeezing games.
4. A dominant defense — Ju Wenjun vs Tan Zhongyi, 2025 World Championship
By 2025, Ju had been champion for seven years — but her defense against Tan Zhongyi (a rematch of their 2018 duel) might have been her most convincing yet. Tan actually struck first early in the match, but Ju responded with a devastating run of consecutive wins to take total control, eventually closing it out 6½–2½.
One highlight stands out: in Game 8, playing the black pieces, Ju delivered a near-perfect performance that analysts credited at roughly 98% accuracy — the kind of clean, error-free chess that turns a match into a rout. The win sealed her fifth Women’s World Championship and made her the first Chinese player to reach that milestone. If the 2018 and 2020 matches showed her resilience, 2025 showed her at her most dominant.
Why these games matter
Put together, these four games and matches capture the full Ju Wenjun:
- The cool-headed match player who won her first title in 2018 and survived the 2020 tiebreak.
- The giant-killer who out-technique’d a 2750+ super-GM in 2024.
- The dominant champion who crushed her 2025 defense with 98%-accuracy chess.
For more on how she creates these results — the positional understanding, the defense, the endgame technique — see Ju Wenjun’s playing style and her opening repertoire.
How to get the most out of her games
If you’re an improving player, Ju’s games are a fantastic model — precisely because they’re not built on tricks you’ll never reproduce:
- Study the conversions, not just the combinations. Ju wins a lot of games after she’s already slightly better. Watch how she turns a small edge — an extra pawn, a better structure — into a full point without letting the opponent back in.
- Watch her defend. Her 2020 match is a masterclass in not panicking from a worse position. Look for the moment she finds a resource and holds.
- Learn from the rook endgames. The Firouzja win came down to a rook ending, the most common endgame in chess. If you want one skill that wins real games, this is it.
- Appreciate match stamina. These are multi-game battles. Notice how she paces herself, takes safe draws when needed, and pounces only when the position genuinely offers something.
The best part: you can set up any of her favorite openings on a real board and try the ideas yourself before you ever look at what the champion played.
Keep exploring
Back to the Ju Wenjun profile · learn her playing style · study her openings · or browse all chess players.
Written and fact-checked by the Chess Lab Academy Editorial Team · Facts verified against Wikipedia, the 2025 World Championship record, and Chess.com, as of July 2026 · Last verified 2026-07-10 · How we verify content.