Instead of closing on May 9, the national team chess tournament for the TPBank Cup 2021 ended early on May 6 due to unpredictable developments of the Covid-19 pandemic. With this change, the organizers decided to change the format in the last 4 games of the standard chess content, change it to blitz chess and close the tournament on the afternoon of May 6. In the end, Hanoi delegation successfully defended first place with 4 gold medals and 1 silver medal.
This year’s tournament has set a record for the number of chess players.
National team chess tournament for TPBank Cup 2021 is with the participation of 350 athletes from 25 units of provinces, cities and industries across the country. This year’s tournament has set a record for the number of chess players. It is a pity that after the two contents of fast chess and blitz chess went smoothly, the standard chess content was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. However, to ensure professional quality, the organizers still conducted game 5 according to the standard chess format (more than half of the games) before turning the remaining 4 games into blitz chess to finish according to the new requirements.
The tournament had to end 3 days early to ensure safety during the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the fast chess content, the Hanoi men’s team with the equality of Tran Minh Thang, Tran Tuan Minh, Tran Dang Minh Quang and Le Tuan Minh won the gold medal quite closely, with a total of 27th compared to the 28th of HCMC team.
In the content of blitz chess, Hanoi continued to demonstrate its strength with the second gold medal of the men’s team thanks to chess players named Nguyen Van Hai, Le Tuan Minh, Nguyen Van Huy and Tran Minh Thang. With a total of 16th, the Capital chess team is far behind Ho Chi Minh City (silver medal, total of 16th) and the Quan Doi (81st).
In the standard chess content, after 5 games were conducted normally, the last 4 games were cornered in the afternoon of May 6 when switching to the blitz chess format. As a result, the Hanoi men’s team and the Ho Chi Minh City women’s team completed their “hat-trick” gold medals. In the men’s group, Hanoi (Minh Thang, Duc Viet, Van Huy, Xuan Dat) totaled 34th compared to 48th of the Quan Doi.
Because two athletes Truong Son & Thao Nguyen did not participate in the standard chess content, the pair of Tran Tuan Minh – Le Thanh Tu of Hanoi convincingly won gold, silver belonged to Ben Tre delegation while Lam Dong and Quang Ninh delegations won bronze medal,
In the end, Hanoi delegation led with 4 gold medals; Ho Chi Minh City delegation ranked second with 3 gold medals; Host Can Tho team ranked third with 2 gold medals.
X.L