 In August 2004, Ni won the 1st Dato’ Arthur Tan Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur.In the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 he beat Evgeny Vladimirov in round one, but was put out by his compatriot Ye Jiangchuan in the second round.In November 2005, the Chinese national team just needed one point to win the championship in the World Team Chess Championship in Beersheba, Israel, but Ni Hua's two endgame losses (to Karen Asrian of Armenia and Alexander Morozevich of Russia) in the final two rounds allowed Russia to clinch victory.