The Vietnamese Chess team participated in the tournament with three representatives who were all national champions: Vu Quoc Dat (2024), Nguyen Minh Nhat Quang (2022) and Nguyen Hoang Yen (2024). This is a squad that can be considered the elite of Vietnamese Chess at present, with the goal of winning the best positions in the tournament.
Nguyen Hoang Yen brought honor to Vietnamese Chess with the silver medal
In the end, the only Vietnamese player who competed successfully and won the silver medal for the team was Nguyen Hoang Yen. This result was not beyond the experts' predictions when her opponent Liu Huan (China) was too strong, maintaining her form throughout the tournament, including defeating Nguyen Hoang Yen in the group stage.
Nguyen Hoang Yen said: "Defeating old teammate Ngo Lan Huong to win the right to compete in the final was a great success for Yen. However, in the match against the Chinese opponent, I missed an opportunity, when the chess had been won by 90% due to being too cautious, not willing to change some pieces to gradually win in the endgame, allowing Liu Huan to have the change to counterattack. That is probably the thing Yen regrets the most".
Meanwhile, in the men's group, two representatives of the Vietnamese men's chess team, Vu Quoc Dat and Nguyen Minh Nhat Quang, tried their best but still had to regret finishing in 6th and 8th place. This tournament also once again affirmed China's position when winning both the men's and women's gold medals. Although in the men's group, China sent a very young player, Liu Baihong (15 years old), to participate and this athlete successively overcame the senior athletes, especially in the final match, where he fought fiercely with a seasoned and experienced Hong Kong player, Hoang Hoc Khiem, and won the rapid game to be crowned the worthy champion.
For the Vietnamese team, in the history of Asian championships, Vietnam won the championship in 2011 thanks to the illustrious achievements of famous player Nguyen Hoang Lam. This remains the only non-Chinese title in the tournament's history.
Thuy Duong