Chinese-American Grandmaster Zhou Jianchao's record 158-game unbeaten streak in classical chess came to an end last week. He lost to Italian Grandmaster Francesco Sonis in the Connecticut Classical tournament. The streak, which began after his last defeat in May 2025, surpassed a previous record but drew comparisons to Magnus Carlsen's achievement.
Zhou Jianchao, a China-born Grandmaster who has represented the USA since 2024, maintained an unbeaten record in FIDE-rated classical chess tournaments for nearly a year. His streak of 158 consecutive games without a loss ended in early February 2026 during the fourth round of the Connecticut Classical, where he was defeated by Francesco Sonis.
The streak started following Jianchao's previous loss to Andrew Lewis Titus on 23 May 2025 at the Annual Chicago Open. During this period, Jianchao won 106 games and drew 52, facing opponents with an average rating of 2298. He played 26 games against other Grandmasters, securing victories over Mahel Boyer, Praveen Balakrishnan, Brewington Hardaway, Emilio Cordova, and Robby Kevlishvili. His sole encounter with a higher-rated player resulted in a draw against Awonder Liang, currently ranked world No. 22.
This achievement broke the prior record of 155 unbeaten games set by Croatian Grandmaster Bogdan Lalic between 2010 and 2011. Jianchao told Chess.com, “I didn’t know how many games I had played without losing. Mentality is very important. If I had thought about this, it would have affected my performance, and I would have lost a long time ago.”
Chess statistician Stefano Ferrara, who monitored the streak, described it as remarkable despite Jianchao often facing younger or underrated players in U.S. state events. Ferrara said, “Getting to 100+ classical games without losing is incredible, getting close to 160 is historical objectively. But he also plays a lot of young, underrated players, so to get this record is still incredibly impressive.” However, he noted it would be unfair to directly compare it to Magnus Carlsen's 125-game unbeaten run from 2018 to 2020, which involved opponents averaging a 2745 rating.
Jianchao acknowledged the difference, stating, “Carlsen is still obviously better. His opponents were much stronger, and his performance was better.” Ferrara added, “Of course, it would be unfair to compare his [Zhou’s] streak to Magnus’ 125-game streak because of the difference in the level of opposition.”
