Culture - Sports

2014 a big year for Vietnamese chess moves: paper

2013 was a good year for Vietnamese chess at both regional and world arenas and the 2014 schedule is packed with opportunities for further success, the Nhan Dan (People) online newspaper reported on February 17.
2013 was a good year for Vietnamese chess at both regional and worldarenas and the 2014 schedule is packed with opportunities for furthersuccess, the Nhan Dan (People) online newspaper reported on February 17.

Lookingback to last year, Vietnamese chess saw the historical world blitzchess championship title won by international super-grandmaster Le QuangLiem at the world rapid and blitz championships in Khanty-Mansiysk(Russia). It was the first time ever a Vietnamese chess player finishedsupreme at a world championship for seniors.

Along with Liem’ssuccess, Vo Thi Kim Phung won double of gold at the 2013 Asian U-20Chess Championships; Hoang Thanh Trang was crowned champion at the 2013European Individual Chess Championships; Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son securedtwo gold medals at the 27th Southeast Asian Games; and the nationalchess team won a gold medal at the 2013 Asian Indoor & Martial ArtsGames team blitz in Incheon, the Republic of Korea.

Thosemiracles achieved by the country’s outstanding players has drawn up anextremely impressive picture of Vietnamese chess in 2013, whileinspiring Vietnamese chess to strive towards new successes in a 2014with a lot of goals and expectations.

Big competitions lie inwait for Vietnam’s chess players this year. First up is the 4th HDBankCup International Chess Open Tournament, to be held on March 9-16 in HoChi Minh City. Liem, reigning champion of the tournament, is lookingforward to defending his crown.

The Women's World Rapid and BlitzChampionships to be held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia will be next,taking place April 23-30, trailed by the World Amateur ChessChampionships from April 25 to May 4 in Singapore.

YoungVietnamese chess stars will compete in the 15th ASEAN+ Age-Group ChessChampionships (Macau) and the Asian Youth Chess Championships(Uzbekistan) in June before taking part in the Asian Junior U20Championships 2014, hosted by Yemen in August, and then the World JuniorU20 Championships in India two months later. Eyes will be on defendingAsian U20 champion Vo Thi Kim Phung.

The year’s most anticipatedtournament is the 2014 World Rapid and Blitz Championships, scheduledfor June 15-2 in Dubai, UAE. High expectations are placed on Quang Liemto repeat last year’s success in this competition.

2014 is notjust about chess. Set for this year are many important tournaments forVietnamese xiangqi (Chinese chess) masters, including the HanXin CupXiangqi International Tournament (China, May), the Asian Team XiangqiChampionship (Taiwan, September), the World Team Xiangqi Championship(Germany, October), the Yang GuangLin Cup Xiangqi Open (China, November)and the Southeast Asian Xiangqi Championships (Malaysia, November).

Outsideof international competitions, chess players nationwide will take partin several domestic tournaments, notably the 7th National SportsFestival – the year’s focal sporting event of the country. Chess andxiangqi matches are to be held in Quang Ninh province in November forindividuals and team disciplines. This promises to be an idealopportunity for new promising young talent to be discovered and nurturedfor the future’s national teams.-VNA
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