The first chess player from Nghe An to participate in a world-level chess tournament.

From the very first medals...

Recounting her youngest daughter's journey into chess, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tam - Phuong Anh's mother - said: "Initially, her parents didn't encourage Phuong Anh to pursue chess because her uncle, Nguyen Dinh Trung (born in 2000), was a national chess champion, and her older sister, Nguyen Thi Phuong Uyen (born in 2012), was then on the provincial chess team. Therefore, her parents understood the competitive pressures faced by athletes."

Furthermore, from a young age, Phuong Anh was a gentle, feminine girl, so her parents didn't think she would learn chess. But when she turned 5, her passion surpassed her parents' expectations. Back then, every time she watched her older sister solve chess problems, Phuong Anh would sit beside her, examining each chess piece and asking her sister what kind of piece it was, how to move it... so her mother had to answer her so that her sister could concentrate on studying.

"But then she enjoyed exploring the moves and learned very quickly, so her father (Mr. Nguyen Hong Nhat - PV) - who is also passionate about chess - decided to seriously and systematically teach her the first lessons of chess. Unexpectedly, Phuong Anh became increasingly interested in chess exercises from easy to difficult."

After less than a month of training, in December 2020, Phuong Anh and her older sister Phuong Uyen went to Thai Nguyen to compete in the Northern Region Open Age Group Chess Championship. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Tam, she only intended for her youngest daughter to try her hand at the U5 standard chess group, but unexpectedly, Phuong Anh achieved a surprising result: a Silver Medal.

"This first medal for my child is a huge motivation for her parents to decide to let her pursue intellectual sports," Ms. Tam said.

In 2021, while the whole country was battling the Covid-19 pandemic, both Ms. Tam and her husband were off work, and Phuong Anh and her sister were staying home from school. This was a time when Mr. Nhat spent more time with his daughter and closely coached Phuong Anh in chess practice. As Mr. Nhat put it, "during that lockdown period, the whole family ate, slept, and breathed chess, and then played online chess games."

In November of that year, the 2021 National Youth Chess Championship took place – a festival for young chess players. Initially, the tournament was planned to be held in person in Ho Chi Minh City, but due to the complicated situation with the Covid-19 pandemic, the Vietnam Chess Federation decided to hold it online. At this tournament, Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh won the valuable Gold Medal in the standard chess category for the age group of 6.

A month later, at the 2021 National Youth Chess Championship (for players ranked from 1st to 25th in the 2021 National Youth Chess Championship and international medal winners in 2021), also held online, Phuong Anh won the Silver Medal again.

...to the world-level tournament

In 2022, when the Covid-19 pandemic was under control, Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh had the opportunity to participate in amateur tournaments in provinces and cities across the country. Also from that year, Phuong Anh was summoned to train in chess at the Provincial Sports Training and Competition Center.

Besides competing in standard chess, she also tried her hand at blitz and rapid chess. In every tournament she participated in in 2022, the girl from Hung Nguyen won at least a Silver medal. These included a Gold medal in the U8 rapid chess category and a Silver medal in the U8 blitz chess category at the Northern Region Open Age Group Chess Tournament; a Gold medal in the U7 standard and U7 rapid chess categories, and a Silver medal in the U7 blitz chess category at the National Youth Chess Championship; and a Gold medal in the U7 rapid chess category and Silver medals in the U7 standard and blitz chess categories at the National Outstanding Youth Chess Championship.

In 2023, Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh continued to achieve impressive results at domestic chess tournaments. At the Central Vietnam Open Chess Championship, she won two individual gold medals in blitz and rapid chess, along with a silver medal in the team event. At the National Youth Chess Championship, Phuong Anh won gold medals in standard and blitz chess, and a silver medal in rapid chess.

Notably, at the National Outstanding Youth Chess Championship, Phuong Anh won Gold Medals in all three categories: standard chess, blitz chess, and rapid chess.

These impressive achievements led to Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh being selected for the national youth chess team to participate in the 2023 World Youth Chess Championship (held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from October 16-26). At this tournament, after 11 matches, Phuong Anh had 7 wins, 1 draw, and 3 losses, finishing 6th overall in the U8 age group, contributing to Vietnam's first-place finish.

Mr. Tran Van Son, Head of the Chess Department at the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center, said: “The fact that athlete Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh will represent the country at the 2023 World Junior Chess Championship is not only a source of pride for her family and Phuong Anh herself, but also for the Nghe An Sports sector, because this is the first time the province has had an athlete participate in a world-level chess tournament.”

“Phuong Anh is an athlete who has shown exceptional passion and a strong desire for self-improvement in chess, and is also a very promising athlete in this intellectual sport. Currently, Phuong Anh has an Elo rating of 1498 and is one of the female chess players with the highest Elo rating (an index assessing the skill level of chess players according to international standards) in the 8-year-old age group in Vietnam,” shared Mr. Tran Van Son.

Mr. Son also added that in recent years, the chess movement among children in Nghe An has developed strongly, with the establishment of chess clubs such as Nghe An Chess, Quynh Mai Chess… This is a sport suitable for cultivating character and intellect, and aligns with the perseverance and hard work of the people of Nghe An, so many parents choose it to develop life skills for their children.

From the development of the chess movement, the Nghe An Sports Department has selected promising athletes for the province's high-performance chess team. Besides Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh, the Nghe An women's chess team currently includes talented athletes Nguyen Anh Bao Thy (born 2010), Truong Thanh Van (born 2012), and Nguyen Thi Phuong Uyen (born 2012) - Phuong Anh's older sister. These athletes have won medals at the National Youth Chess Championship and the National Outstanding Youth Chess Championship, and are receiving significant investment from the Nghe An Sports Department to achieve success at national and international tournaments in the near future.

Mr. Tran Van Son - Head of the Chess Department at the Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center.

Nguyen Hong Nhat, the father of athlete Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh, said that the family will create all the conditions for her to pursue her passion. Her talent and the support and encouragement from her family will be the motivation for Phuong Anh to achieve even more high achievements, contributing to the further development of chess in Nghe An province in the future.