Vietnamese chess won 2 Asian runner-up positions

Nguyen Hoang Yen won the silver medal in the women's individual and Ngo Tri Thien ranked second in the men's individual U18 category, which is the best achievement of the Vietnamese chess team at the ongoing Asian Championship in Bangkok, Thailand.

As expected by experts, chess player Nguyen Hoang Yen only made a few mistakes in the match with Wu Ke-xin (Ngo Kha Han), gaining an advantage but due to running out of time, she had to accept defeat against the young Chinese champion. The defeat against the number one candidate meant that Nguyen Hoang Yen, despite her efforts in all the remaining matches, could not catch up with Wu Ke-xin's score. This is the third time that the number 1 Vietnamese female chess player has won the continental runner-up position, after 2015 and 2019, in addition to the second place finishes behind the Chinese masters at the World Championships 2011, 2013, 2017.

Ngo Tri Thien (left) defeated Hong Kong player So Lut-chai in the final game to win the silver medal in the U18 men's individual event (Photo: HANH NGO)

In the U16 men's group, young player Ngo Tri Thien finished second overall after Meng Fan-rui of China. Due to losing to Meng Fan-rui in the opening match, Ngo Tri Thien, despite winning all four remaining matches against Vishwanatt (India), Lu Cheng-hao (Taiwan - China), Chong Yik-yang (Singapore) and So Lut-chai (Hong Kong - China), still lost points to his opponent nicknamed "Demon Boy", receiving a silver medal in his first appearance at the continental tournament.

The most regrettable performance was the performance of the Vietnamese men's team at the tournament, which is no less important than the chess tournament in the framework of the 19th Asian Games taking place in Hangzhou, China. Starting off well with 3 consecutive wins to earn 6 points, the Vietnamese team lost consecutively to the Chinese team and Hong Kong China, no longer having the right to decide the second place in the group and the ticket to the final. Drawing with West Malaysia in the last match, the Vietnamese team fell to the second group, behind Singapore, the team that won the right to play the final match with China.

According to head coach Hoang Dinh Hong, in addition to the objective reason of not having the strongest team to participate in the tournament, the coaching staff also takes responsibility for the unscientific and unreasonable arrangement of personnel and pairing. This lesson is too expensive and the team will certainly have to work harder to calculate the drop point right at the 19th Asian Games, an arena that promises much more fierce and tough competition.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/the-thao/co-tuong-viet-gianh-2-ngoi-a-quan-chau-a-20230809195949082.htm