2018 Zonal 3.5 Chess Championship was held in Daqing, China on August 13-20. The format is an 11-round Swiss System Chess Championship with 43 total chess players participated.

Nothing was decided until after the last round was completed. There were 2 chess players with 7 points going into the final round, and a number of players with just 1/2 point behind. Therefore, anything could have happened.

GM Lu Shanglei won the Chess Zonal after beating Xiang Zeyu and finished with 8 points out of 11. Finished in 2nd was Xu Xiangyu with 7.5, who defeated Xu Yinglun.

The top 2 finishers qualified for the Chess World Cup.

Peng Xiangjian finished with 7.5 points and missed the Chess World Cup after drawing his last game.

Final chess standings (top 20)

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