Career
In 2006, he became China"s 21st Grandmaster at the age of 17. In March 2009, Zhou became for the first time in his career a top 100 player in the world. He learned to play chess at the age of 6.
In 2004, at the 2nd Russia-China Match, he scored 4.5/6 with a performance of 2623.
First General Motors norm at the 2005 Aeroflot Open (A2 Group) having scored 6/9 (perf 2727)
Second General Motors norm at the 2005 Dubai Open having scored 6/9 (perf 2664)
Zhou was the runner-up of the National Individual Championship and joint runner-up of the World Team Championship in 2005. Third General Motors norm at the 2006 Aeroflot Open (A2 Group) having scored 6.5/9 (perf 2616)
Zhou qualified for the Chess World Cup 2007 (held in Khanty-Mansiysk) where he reached Round Three.
He eventually lost to Michael Adams after having upset Emil Sutovsky and Andrei Volokitin in the first two rounds. At the 2009 Aeroflot Open, Zhou came third on tiebreak scoring 6.0/9 (+3,=6,-0) with a 2753 performance.
He reached the second round of the Chess World Cup 2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk.
Zhou Jianchao scored 6.0/9 (+3,=6,-0) at the 2010 Aeroflot Open coming 4th out of 80 players with a 2777 performance. China Chess League
Zhou Jianchao plays for Shanghai chess club in the China Chess League (CCL).