Vietnam get new chess grandmaster

After nine games, Minh, with an Elo rating of 2,527, earned seven points and went unbeaten. His efficiency in this tournament is equivalent to an Elo of 2,683. He also played four grandmasters and opponents from more than three chess federations. These conditions were enough for Minh to get the title of grandmaster.

Minh is the 13th chess grandmaster in Vietnam. The previous 12 are Dao Thien Hai, Tu Hoang Thong, Nguyen Anh Dung, Cao Sang, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Le Quang Liem, Bui Vinh, Nguyen Huynh Minh Huy, Nguyen Duc Hoa, Tran Tuan Minh, Nguyen Anh Khoi and Nguyen Van Huy.

The 2022 World Open brought together 225 players to play nine rounds from June 30 to July 4 in Philadelphia, the U.S. Minh concluded the tournament peaking first along with a few other strong players. He also earned 13.3 Elo in this tournament.

The 26-year-old is also the second Vietnamese to top a World Open event. The first one was Vietnam’s top player Le Quang Liem, who led the 2019 tournament with 7.5 points.

Minh is the number three player in Vietnam, after Liem and Son. He gained recognition in the chess community after achieving high results at the blitz and bullet tournaments of the top online chess platforms.

World number eight Hikaru Nakamura said that Minh had already reached the level of a grandmaster a long time ago.

At 2019 SEA Games, Minh claimed gold medals in individual and team blitz events.

Grandmaster or GM is the highest title that world chess federation FIDE can grant a player. A GM can keep this title permanently, only losing it if found cheating.

There are two main conditions for becoming a GM. The first is to achieve an Elo of 2,500. The second is trickier, which is to achieve an efficiency that equals an Elo of 2,600 in a tournament where at least 33 percent of opponents are GMs. At least 50 percent of those opponents must hold a FIDE title. The average Elo of opponents must be 2,380 or above and they must come from three different chess federations.