Darwin Yang (born December 4, 1996, in Dallas, Texas) is an American chess grandmaster and economist. He earned the FIDE Grandmaster title in 2016 at the age of 19, and has also pursued academic work in economics.
Chess Career
Yang began playing competitive chess in the mid-2000s. In 2008, he finished third in a tie-breaker for the under-12 group at the World Youth Chess Championship — one of the top American performances at that event that year. In April 2011, he earned the International Master (IM) title at the SPICE Spring Chess Invitational at Texas Tech University, defeating IM Marc Esserman; he had achieved all three required IM norms in West Texas. In 2014, Yang won the Texas State Championship, hosted by the Texas Chess Association.
Yang's peak FIDE rating was 2498, achieved in July 2012. His later tournament activity declined in the late 2010s, and Chess.com lists him as retired from active play.
Academic and Professional Life
From 2015 to 2019, Yang attended Harvard University, where he earned a bachelor's degree in economics and mathematical sciences. He was a senior in Leverett House, concentrating in economics with a secondary in mathematics, and was a member of the Harvard Chess Club. His academic interests include international economics and political economy, particularly the evolution of parties and electoral competition in democratic systems.
In 2021, Yang began pursuing a Ph.D. in economics at Princeton University.
Other Individuals with the Same Name
The name "Darwin Yang" is also shared by other individuals in unrelated fields, notably a chemical engineering researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, whose publications have been cited over 700 times, and a professional at Colossal Biosciences. These individuals are distinct from the chess grandmaster and economist described above.
