{"id":14830,"date":"2026-02-05T10:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/?p=14830"},"modified":"2026-02-05T10:03:20","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T10:03:20","slug":"reigning-world-champion-ju-wenjun-returns-to-norway-chess-women-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/2026\/02\/05\/reigning-world-champion-ju-wenjun-returns-to-norway-chess-women-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Reigning Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun Returns to Norway Chess Women in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"

Reigning Women\u2019s World Champion Ju Wenjun will return to Norway Chess Women in 2026, this time competing in Oslo. One of the most accomplished and consistent women\u2019s champions of the modern era, Ju comes back to the tournament as a familiar and formidable presence at the very top level of women\u2019s chess.<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s nice to participate in Norway Chess Women once again. See you in Oslo!\u201d says Ju Wenjun.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ju<\/p>\n

Photo:<\/strong>\u00a0Norway Chess \/ Tor Nilssen & Kjetil V. Tveito<\/span><\/p>\n

A five-time Women\u2019s World Champion in classical chess, Ju has held the world title continuously since 2018. She is also a three-time world champion in fast chess, having won the Women\u2019s World Rapid Championship in 2017 and 2018, as well as the Women\u2019s World Blitz Championship in 2024. In March 2017, she became the fifth woman in history to surpass the 2600 rating mark.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norway Chess Women \u2013 Raising the Bar in Women\u2019s Chess<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n

Launched in 2024, Norway Chess Women was established as the world\u2019s first fully equal super tournament for women, staged in parallel with the main Norway Chess event. The tournament is played with the same format, number of players, playing conditions and prize fund as the open event, setting a clear standard for equality at the top level of professional chess.<\/span><\/p>\n

Now entering its third edition, Norway Chess Women has firmly established itself as one of the most prestigious stages in women\u2019s chess, bringing together the world\u2019s strongest players in a highly competitive and internationally visible setting.<\/span><\/p>\n

Norway Chess Women has been part of Ju Wenjun\u2019s journey from the very beginning. At the inaugural edition in 2024, she delivered a strong performance and went on to become the first-ever Norway Chess Women champion, defeating 2023 Women\u2019s World Championship challenger Lei Tingjie in the final round. She then returned in 2025 to finish fourth overall and comes back in 2026 to once again compete at the highest level.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cJu Wenjun has been part of Norway Chess Women from the very beginning, and it means a lot to welcome her back as reigning Women\u2019s World Champion,\u201d says Benedicte Westre Skog, COO of Norway Chess. \u201cShe brings experience, consistency and a very high competitive level to the tournament, and we\u2019re looking forward to seeing her compete in Oslo once again.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Ju<\/p>\n

Photo:<\/strong> Norway Chess \/ Michal Walusza<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reigning Women\u2019s World Champion Ju Wenjun will return to Norway Chess Women in 2026, this time competing in Oslo. One of the most accomplished and consistent women\u2019s champions of the modern era, Ju comes back to the tournament as a familiar and formidable presence at the very top level of women\u2019s chess. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":14831,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14830","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14830"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14842,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14830\/revisions\/14842"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14831"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14830"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14830"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/norwaychess.no\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}