Chess Tournament – HD Bank Cup which ended in HCM City on Jan. 9.
The 17-year-old grandmaster grabbed 4.5 points over
the nine rounds. By doing so, she equalled the scores of three other
rivals but ended up taking the title because of her better sub-index.
Hung, from Bac Giang province, had previously won a
gold medal at the National Sports Games which helped her to become
Vietnam 's No 1 master.
She needs just one standard
to become Vietnam's fifth – and youngest ever– International Female
Grandmaster and is expected to earn this at a training course in
Hungary this summer.
It was a great tournament for
Vietnam's women with Hung's teammates Pham Le Thao Nguyen and
Nguyen Thanh An coming second and third at the HD Bank Cup.
On the men's side, the No 1 seed Le Quang Liem of Vietnam had a
disappointing event, earning fourth place overall with 6.5 points, half a
point less than event champion Yu Yangyi of China .
Chinese Wen Yang and Filipino Gomez John Paul were the two runners-up
on the men's side of the draw. Liem said he wasn't too worried about his
performance here.
"In general, I had a fairly good
tourney although I wasted several chances to improve my position. But
this is normal in chess. I do not have to worry about my performance
here because results at this tournament don't influence my Elo rating,"
said Liem who ranks 79th in the world.
"In 2011 my
target is to reach the rating of 2,700, which is the level for a super
International Grandmaster (IGM)," added Liem whose present Elo rating is
2,664.
Other male Vietnamese players failed to make
top three. IGM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, the former world U10 champion
was at fifth. While Nguyen Anh Dung and Dao Thien Hai suffered losses in
early round./.
