Vietnam tops Asian Youth Chess Championships

The medal tally covered rapid, standard and blitz chess events. The number gold medals won by Vietnam accounted for 54% of the tournament total, which meant that the country won more gold medals than all other teams combined.

Finishing second was India with 20 gold, 11 silver and 11 bronze medals, followed by the host Indonesia with four gold, 12 silver and 21 bronze medals.

The 2022 Asian Youth Chess Championships attracted 451 players from 20 delegations, competing in 12 tables with six age groups from 8 to 18.

Indonesia had the most number of participants with 127, followed by Vietnam with 98. None of the other delegations had more than 40 participants.

India, one of the strongest chess playing countries, didn’t send their best players to the tournament this year, therefore there were no players with an Elo rating above 2,400. The U18 team of India has 22 players with Elo ratings above 2,400, but they chose to play at other tournaments that have a higher level of difficulty to improve their ratings.

The tournament also didn’t have any international master (IM) or grandmaster (GM) contestants, but Vietnam’s Dao Minh Nhat has earned the IM title after winning the standard U18 event. Nguyen Thien Ngan, who won the standard U18 women’s event, will also become an IM.