Vietnam bags eight gold medals at Asian Youth Chess Championship

ABO/NDO – Vietnam’s junior chess stars produced a successful end to their campaign at the 2019 Asian Youth Championship in Kaluthara, Sri Lanka, winning a total of eight gold, 12 silver and seven bronze medals.

Vietnamese players at the closing ceremony.

The standard chess category saw the Vietnamese players dominate, as they claimed three golds, four silvers and two bronzes. The title winners included Bach Ngoc Thuy Duong (girls U16), Nguyen Hong Anh (girls U18) and Tong Thai Hoang An (boys U10).

Earlier, Vietnam clinched two gold, five silver and two bronze medals in the blitz chess event (second place), in addition to three medals of each colour in the rapid chess division (second place).

The gold medalists included Tran Dang Minh Quang (boys U14, blitz gold), Ho Ngoc Vy (girls U10, blitz gold), Pham Tran Gia Phuc (boys U10, rapid gold), Nguyen Quoc Hy (boys U14, rapid gold) and Nguyen Hong Anh (girls U18, rapid gold).

Among the aforementioned gold medal winners, Bach Ngoc Thuy Duong, who joined seniors in the national team to finish 15th at the 2018 Chess Olympiad, was the most outstanding name. Duong came second in the race for the Nino title in honour of the best player of the tournament in Sri Lanka. The 2003-born girl has become well-known since she claimed the U16 rapid chess title at the FIDE World Youth Rapid & Blitz Chess Championships 2018 in Greece.

By winning eight golds in total, the Vietnamese contingent defended their overall runner-up finish at the Asian Youth Championship arena, two golds behind the leaders Kazakhstan.

The 2019 tournament took place in Kaluthara, Sri Lanka, from April 1 to 10, with Vietnam represented by 35 players. In last year’s event, Vietnam won a total of seven gold, 23 silver and 13 bronze medals, finishing in second place overall behind India.

(Source: NDO)