Zhao became the youngest Australian international master at the age of 14, and was a member of the NSW Junior Chess League.

In 2004 he won the Doeberl Cup with 6/7 ahead of Ian Rogers, David Smerdon, Johansen and Gary Lane.

This enabled him to qualify for the 2007 FIDE World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia,[6] where he was knocked out in the first round by Magnus Carlsen (0–2).

[11][12] Zhao earned his second GM norm by convincingly winning with 6.5 points the VII Festival Internacional de Ajedrez GEMA tournament (10th category round-robin) which was held from 26 December 2007 until 5 January 2008 in Mondariz Balneario (Pontevedra), Spain.

[16] He again played top board for Australia in the 2010 Chess Olympiad held in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia where he scored 5/9.