Billiards ace takes down world number one at world championship

Chien went back and forth with Jaspers right at the start, until the 14th turn when the Vietnamese star pulled a series of 13 points to lead 30-20. But Jaspers didn’t give up as he patiently chased Chien on the scoreboard and equalized 35-35. The Dutchman put Chien into a hard move but he still managed to score and continued to claim another four points, ending the game 40-35 after 19 turns.

Last month, Chien lost to Jaspers at the Three-Cushion World Cup in Ankara, Turkey, also after 19 turns.

In the other match, Nguyen Duc Anh Chien also beat Raimond Burgman 40-31 after 24 turns. Anh Chien took the lead during the entire match.

Overall, Vietnam won 4-0 against the Netherlands. The average point per move of the two Vietnamese cueists combined was 1.860.

On Thursday night, Colombia beat France 4-0 with an average point of 1.454, which means Vietnam are on top of group C after the first fixture.

Vietnam will play the next games with Colombia on Friday afternoon and France on Saturday.

The 2022 World Three-Cushion Championship for National Teams will take place from March 10 to 13 in Viersen, Germany. This year’s tournament features 16 teams, divided into four groups of four. The top two teams of each group will make the quarterfinals.

A match is decided when a player reaches 40 points.

Sweden hold the most titles in this tournament with nine. Vietnam haven’t advanced to the semifinals before. In 2019, it topped the group stage but lost to the Netherlands in the quarterfinals. The prize pool for this year will be $9,000.