The Vietnamese men’s chess team kept on a steady downward slope at the World Chess Olympiad wrapping up its final and eleventh round Sunday to rank 52nd on the final standing table, after a misleading good start in Russia.
At the last round in Khanty-Mansiysk, Vietnam -- the seed No 27 -- was upset 1.5-2.5 by 38th ranked Iran.
Dao Thien Hai (Elo rating of 2,520) was the only one to lose against Asghar Golizadeh (2,481) while his three compatriots Le Quang Liem (2,694), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2,633) and Nguyen Anh Dung (2,500) tied with Ehsan Ghaem Maghami (2,594), Elshan Moradiabadi (2,578) and Homayoon Toufighi (2,499) respectively.
Vietnam had climbed to third place after winning all four opening rounds before losing the next two to drop to 22nd out of 148 teams.
The team kept downgrading to the 33th place after the tenth round despite not losing any more. Vietnam held Germany, Greece, Kazakhstan and Montenegro to draws in the seventh to the tenth rounds.
Ukraine took the lead after 11 rounds to crown the championship title. Russia 1, Israel, Hungary and China followed in the top five standings. Russia entered five teams in the competitions.
At the last Olympiad in Germany in 2008, Vietnam had finished ninth out of 154 teams.
In the women’s section, Vietnam, the seed No 24, ranked 18th out of 114 teams, with seven wins and four losses.
Russia 1, China, Georgia, Cuba and the US were the top five in the women’s division.
