Tan was born in
Chongqing. In 1997, she started learning to play chess. She won the
World Youth U10 Girls Chess Championship twice, in 2000 and 2001, both held in
Oropesa del Mar. In 2002, she won the
World Youth U12 Girls Chess Championship in
Heraklion. In August–September 2008 at the
Women's World Chess Championship she was knocked out in the second round by
Pia Cramling by ½-1½. In 2011, she won the women's
chess tournament at the
2011 Summer Universiade in
Shenzhen, contributing to China's team gold medal. Tan won the Women's World University Chess Championship of 2012 in
Guimarães. In 2013, she won the 3rd China Women Masters Tournament in
Wuxi with a score of 6.5/9 points, 1.5 ahead of runners-up
Valentina Gunina and
Huang Qian. In 2014 Tan won the Asian Women's
Blitz Championship in
Sharjah. In May 2015 she won the
Chinese Women's Chess Championship in
Xinghua. The following month, Tan won the 5th China Women Masters Tournament with 7/9, a full point ahead of second-placed
Lei Tingjie. In August 2015, she won the Asian Women's
Rapid Championship in
Al Ain. On December 1, 2015, Tan Zhongyi won the 1st China Chess Queen Match, a knockout tournament held in
Taizhou, Zhejiang, after defeating
Ju Wenjun in the final in an
armageddon game. She won the women's gold medal for board 4 at the
42nd Chess Olympiad in 2016. She reached the final of the
Women's World Chess Championship 2017 against GM
Anna Muzychuk. They finished the classical games 2–2 with one win each, sending the match to a rapid tie-break. Tan won the two-game tie-break by drawing the first game with Black and then winning the second game with White, and thus became Women's World Champion. This also earned her the title of
Grandmaster. She lost the Women's World Champion title to
Ju Wenjun at the
Women's World Chess Championship Match 2018 with a final score of 5½–4½. In 2020, she won the women's top prize at the Gibraltar Masters. In 2021, Tan achieved third place in the
Women's Chess World Cup after winning against
Anna Muzychuk with a score of 2.5 - 1.5. In 2022, Tan won the Women's
World Rapid Championship in
Almaty, Kazakhstan, after defeating local player
Dinara Saduakassova in the tiebreaker. Tan lost the
Women's World Chess Championship 2025 against compatriot
Ju Wenjun, with a score of 6.5-2.5. Tan Finished 3rd in
Women's Chess World Cup 2025 she lost in the semifinals to eventual winner
Divya Deshmukh and beat
Lei Tingjie in the 3rd place match, As a result she qualified for the
Women's Candidates Tournament 2026. Tan participated in
Women's Candidates Tournament 2026, She finished 8th with the score 5.5/14 losing 4 and winning only 1. ==China Chess League==