Vietnam wins the world children's chess tournament

EGYPT- With four players winning prizes in six age groups, Vietnam achieved the highest result at the 2023 World Junior Chess Championship.

The four Vietnamese players who received awards include Dau Khuong Duy - gold medal, Nguyen Nam Kiet - silver medal for U12 men, Tran Hoang Bao An - bronze medal for U8 women, and Le Thai Hoang Anh - fourth place for U12 women. This is a big step forward for the delegation, as last year no Vietnamese player was in the Top 5 at the tournament.

Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh (left) and Tran Hoang Bao An before the final game of the U8 women's group, the World Junior Chess Championship in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt on October 26, 2023. Photo: Minh Thang

The 2023 World Junior Chess Championship will take place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from October 16 to October 26, with six age groups for both men and women: U8, U10 and U12. The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has determined that the top five players in each age group will receive awards, including cups, medals and certificates. Vietnam is the only delegation with four players receiving awards this year.

Seven Russian players received prizes, including the U8 champion Roman Shogdzhiev with a perfect score of 11. However, they had to compete under the FIDE flag with Belarusian players, so they were not considered an official delegation. Even though this was an individual tournament, FIDE did not award prizes to delegations.

Vietnam had 14 players participating in the tournament, in all six age groups, all of whom scored 6 points or more after 11 games, or more than 50% of the total points. The tournament had 500 players from 64 countries and territories, but no team had two champions.

Khuong Duy won the gold medal for Vietnam after eight years of waiting, since Nguyen Le Cam Hien in the U8 women's category in 2015. This player was undefeated with 9.5 points, earning 22 more Elo, approaching the 2,300 mark. Khuong Duy's achievement helped the team have the most successful tournament. This is a tournament that nurtures many players who later rose to the top of the world, so most of the masters, including Magnus Carlsen, have participated in the tournament.

However, the tournament does not usually gather the strongest players in all age groups for various reasons. Khuong Duy has an Elo outside the world's Top 10 among players born in 2011 or later, but is the third seed in the U12 group of this year's tournament.

However, the Elo of junior players can change four times faster than that of professional players. Therefore, the rankings of players in such young age groups do not have much meaning. The results of this tournament also helped Khuong Duy enter the Top 10 of the world U12 group, according to Elo.

Vnexpress.net