Vietnamese chess player secure silver at Philippine int’l competition

Hanoi’s chess star Tran Tuan Minh brought home a silver medal at the 2016 Philippines International Chess Championship that concluded on the afternoon of December 11 after six days of competition.

Tran Tuan Minh and his brother Tran Minh Thang
Tran Tuan Minh and his brother Tran Minh Thang

Minh (Elo 2.478) seemed to have missed out on making the overall podium after losing two of his first four matches.

However, in the last five games, the 20-year-old player made an incredible breakthrough with four wins and one draw, including a last-round victory against Bulgarian V. Kovalev (Elo 2.595), thereby jumping to second place with 6.5 points overall.

Notably, Minh scored the same number of points as the Chinese champion, Grandmaster Wang Hao, but ended up in second position due to the sub-index.

Due to his impressive performance in the Philippines, an additional 19 elo points were added to Minh’s FIDE rating, increasing it to 2495.

Chinese Le Tingjie came out in third place with six points.

Minh’s brother Tran Minh Thang, rated 2399, ranked 15th overall with five points, which earned him an additional seven elo points.