Outstanding Achievement
The 2025 Southeast Asian Age Group Chess Championship is hosted by the Penang Chess Association, under the auspices of the ASEAN Chess Federation and the Malaysian Chess Federation. This year's tournament brings together more than 300 players from 18 countries and territories, of which Vietnam is the delegation with the largest number of participating players with 143 players.
At the tournament, Vietnamese players competed in all three categories: Standard Chess, Rapid Chess, and Blitz Chess according to the competition tables of 16 age groups for men and women, in addition to the over 50 (S50) and over 65 (S65) age groups. At the end of the tournament, the Vietnamese chess team won 72 gold medals, far surpassing the Philippines (12 gold medals) and host Malaysia (6 gold medals) to rank first overall.
Accordingly, in the standard chess event, Vietnamese players dominated 15/16 team events and won 13 individual gold medals, along with the impressive victory of grandmaster Tu Hoang Thong in the S50 group. In rapid chess, the players continued to win 16 team gold medals and 14 individual gold medals, then continued to shine in the blitz chess event with 13 gold medals.
Mr. Nguyen Minh Thang, leader of the Vietnamese youth chess team at the tournament and Vice President and General Secretary of the Vietnam Chess Federation, highly appreciated the achievements of players such as: Nguyen Ha Thi Hai, Nguyen Quoc Hy, Dang Anh Minh, Nguyen Binh Vy (standard chess), Bui Ngoc Phuong Nghi, Vuong Tung Lam, Dang Le Xuan Hien (rapid chess), Nguyen Thien Ngan, Dau Khuong Duy, Dinh Nho Kiet (blitz chess).
Among the above faces, the most prominent is Dau Khuong Duy, the player who just won the gold medal in the U14 Men's Blitz Chess at the 2025 FIDE World Youth Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, which took place in Rhodes (Greece) in April. At present, Khuong Duy is also considered by experts to be the most promising young player of Vietnamese chess.
According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Thang, the achievements at the tournament are the professional efforts of the players. “The coaching staff always encourages the whole team to maintain the most stable spirit, to compete to their full potential. In general, the level of young players in the region is gradually narrowing, so Vietnamese chess will have to be very careful in investing to have a core force for the future,” Mr. Thang shared.
Expectation for development
Before the Southeast Asian tournament, the Vietnamese youth chess team participated in the 2025 FIDE World Youth Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, winning 3 gold medals and ranking third overall. In the international arena, Vietnamese chess also made a big splash when we had world champions such as Nguyen Anh Khoi (U10 champion in 2012, U12 in 2014), Nguyen Le Cam Hien (U8 in 2015) or Pham Tran Gia Phuc (U8 rapid in 2017).
Achievements from regional, continental and world competitions in recent years show that young Vietnamese players have great potential, promising to develop professionally in the future to continue bringing glory to the country.
It is undeniable that Vietnamese chess has a generation of young players with great potential, as they often achieve outstanding results in regional, Asian and world competitions. However, for talents to pursue their passion and become good players like Quang Liem, Truong Son, Thao Nguyen, Kim Phung is not simple. There are many decisive factors, such as uneven development and investment between ages and regions, lack of investment and support, pressure and expectation, opportunity and talent, and competition.
Like Quang Liem, to become a world Super Grandmaster today, in addition to talent and passion, this player received great support from his family, as well as the support of the federation and the Sports industry . This helped Quang Liem compete in international tournaments when he was a young player, gradually over time he accumulated to create a breakthrough in expertise and gain a worthy position.
Vietnam has many young players with better starting points (results in international youth tournaments) than Quang Liem, but to become a world Super Grandmaster like this player is very difficult and so far only Quang Liem has done it. During his return to Vietnam to compete and exchange at the end of last year, a young player asked Quang Liem how to become an international Super Grandmaster.
At that time, Quang Liem advised not to focus too much on becoming a World Super Grandmaster, but to set small goals to improve every day and develop achievements through each tournament. The most important thing is to maintain the passion for playing chess, when you have passion, you will not feel pressured when playing chess.
Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/tiep-tuc-khang-dinh-vi-the-151879.html
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