Việt Nam win two golds in blitz chess

Lê Tuấn Minh celebrates his gold medal in the men’s blitz chess event on May 20. — VNA/VNS Photo Thanh Vân

Thanh Nga

QUẢNG NINH — Vietnamese chess players brought home two more gold medals in the blitz chess category on May 20.

In the men’s blitz, Lê Tuấn Minh outstandingly defeated Lê Quang Liêm in the Vietnamese-all final match to take gold.

Both Minh and Liêm were in good form in the semi-finals to beat Megaranto Susanto of Indonesia and Tin Yingjao of Singapore, respectively.

In the first game of the final, Minh played very firmly with the black pieces to draw with Liêm. In the second game, the Hanoian took advantage of the white pieces to attack and win.

This helped Minh win his second gold medal at the SEA Games 31, after grabbing one in the men’s rapid chess team category with Liêm.

Meanwhile, Liêm had an unsuccessful SEA Games as he only took silver in the men’s blitz chess division. Earlier, he was eliminated in the men’s rapid category.

Minh was born in 1996 in Hà Nội. He has played chess since the age of eight and won the national blitz and blitz chess titles in 2018 and was crowned in standard chess event in 2020. His ability to play blitz chess has even left chess king Magnus Carlsen praising him on a live broadcast.

In the women’s blitz chess final, GM Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn’s wife, Phạm Lê Thảo Nguyên, excellently defeated Indonesian Sihite Chelsie Monica Ignesias to bag gold.

With two gold medals from Minh and Nguyên, the Vietnamese chess team has surpassed their target of six gold medals.