Le Tuan Minh scored a hat-trick of national excellent chess gold medals
Tuan Minh only participated in the above three events at the tournament, but he ranked first in all of them. The 27-year-old player won 7.5 points in 9 quick games, equal to Ngo Duc Tri's score but higher than his head-to-head sub-index. At blitz chess, Tuan Minh earned 8 points in 9 games, monopolizing the top position by half a point more than the two players behind. In super blitz chess, he got 7.5 points, 0.5 points more than Dau Khuong Duy and Bao Khoa.
Tuan Minh is the number three player in Vietnam after Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son. But the two top players have not participated in the tournament for many years. Quang Liem is residing in the US and is the Director of SPICE chess academy, while Truong Son rarely participates in domestic tournaments.
National Excellent Chess Award, selects players with high achievements from the national chess tournament, to compete in events including standard chess, rapid chess, blitz chess and ASEAN chess. This year's tournament takes place in Ha Tien, Kien Giang from September 9 to September 19, adding super blitz chess content, with one minute for each side, plus two seconds after each move.
In the women's group, Bach Ngoc Thuy Duong won the gold medal in rapid chess, Nguyen Hong Anh won the blitz and super blitz chess championship. The women's group also lacks Vietnam's number one player Pham Le Thao Nguyen - Truong Son's wife. There were young players who won individual medals at the tournament such as Pham Tran Gia Phuc and Khuong Duy with silver medals in blitz and men's super blitz respectively.
The tournament is also an opportunity for chess players to practice and prepare to attend Asiad in Hangzhou, China. Vietnam participates in the tournament with 10 players, 5 men are Quang Liem, Truong Son, Le Tuan Minh, Tran Tuan Minh and Tran Minh Thang, 5 women are Thao Nguyen, Vo Thi Kim Phung, Nguyen Thi Thanh An, Hoang Thi Bao Tram and Nguyen Thi Mai Hung. Chess is scheduled to take place from September 24 to October 7, with four contents including men's rapid chess, men's standard, women's rapid chess and women's standard.
