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

From the first medals...

Talking about her youngest daughter's journey to chess, Ms. Nguyen Thi Tam - Phuong Anh's mother said: "At first, my parents did not guide Phuong Anh to follow chess because in the family, there was an uncle named Nguyen Dinh Trung (born 2000) who was a national chess grandmaster and her older sister, Nguyen Thi Phuong Uyen (born 2012), who was then on the provincial chess team, so my parents understood the competition pressure of an athlete.

Moreover, since childhood, Phuong Anh was a gentle, feminine girl, so her parents did not think she could learn chess. But when she turned 5, her passion surpassed her parents' calculations. Every time she saw her older sister solving chess exercises, Phuong Anh would sit next to her, fondle each chess piece and ask her what 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 liked to explore the moves and learned very quickly, so her father (Mr. Nguyen Hong Nhat - PV) - a person who is also passionate about chess, decided to teach her seriously, basically the first lessons of chess. Unexpectedly, Phuong Anh became more and more interested in chess exercises from easy to difficult.

After studying for less than a month, in December 2020, Phuong Anh and her sister Phuong Uyen went to Thai Nguyen to compete in the Northern Open Age Group Chess Championship. According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Tam, she only let her youngest daughter try her hand at the U5 standard chess movement group, but unexpectedly, Phuong Anh won a rather surprising achievement, a Silver Medal.

“My first medal was a great motivation for my parents to decide to let me pursue intellectual sports,” said Ms. Tam.

In 2021, the whole country is fighting the Covid-19 epidemic, Tam and her husband are both off work, Phuong Anh and her sister are off school at home, so this is the time when Nhat is close to his children and closely guides Phuong Anh in practicing chess. As Nhat said, "during that time off from the epidemic, the whole family ate chess, slept chess, and then went online to play chess."

In November of that year, the 2021 National Youth Chess Championship took place - a festival for young chess players. According to the original plan, the tournament was held directly in Ho Chi Minh City, but due to the complicated developments of the Covid-19 epidemic, the Vietnam Chess Federation decided to organize the competition online. At this tournament, Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh won a precious 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 1 to 25 of the 2021 National Youth Chess Championship and 2021 international medalists), also in online format, Phuong Anh won the Silver Medal.

...to the world tournament

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

Not only 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 a Silver Medal or higher. That is the Gold Medal in the U8 rapid chess event, the Silver Medal in the U8 blitz event at the Northern Open Age Group Chess Tournament; Gold Medal in the U7 standard chess and U7 rapid chess events, the Silver Medal in the U7 blitz chess event at the National Youth Chess Championship; Gold Medal in the U7 rapid chess event, the Silver Medal in the U7 standard and blitz chess at the National Excellent Youth Chess Championship.

In 2023, Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh continued to achieve impressive results in domestic chess tournaments. At the Central Open Chess Championship, she won 2 individual Gold Medals in blitz and rapid chess and 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 Youth Chess Championship, Phuong Anh won Gold Medals in all three categories: standard chess, blitz chess and rapid chess.

These impressive achievements helped Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh be called up to the national youth chess team to participate in the 2023 World Junior Chess Championship (held in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt from October 16 to 26). At this tournament, after 11 matches, Phuong Anh had 7 wins, 1 draw and 3 losses, ranking 6th overall in the U8 age group, contributing to helping Vietnam win the overall title.

Mr. Tran Van Son - Head of the Chess Department of Nghe An Sports Training and Competition Center said: "The fact that athlete Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh is representing the country to participate in the 2023 World Children's Chess Championship is not only the pride of Phuong Anh's family and herself, but also of Nghe An Sports Industry, 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 a special passion and drive for chess and is also a very promising athlete in this intellectual sport. Currently, Phuong Anh has an Elo coefficient of 1498 and is one of the female chess players with the highest Elo score (an index to evaluate the level of chess players according to international standards - PV) in the 8-year-old age group in Vietnam,” said 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 subject suitable for training personality, intelligence, suitable for the perseverance, endurance, and hard work of Nghe An people, so it is chosen by many parents to develop life skills for their children.

From the development of the chess movement, Nghe An Sports Department has selected promising athletes for the province's high-performance chess team. In addition to Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh, Nghe An's women's chess team currently also has 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 are athletes who have won medals at national youth chess championships, national excellent youth chess championships and are being given key investments by Nghe An Sports Department to achieve achievements at national and international tournaments in the coming time."

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

Mr. Nguyen Hong Nhat - father of athlete Nguyen Thi Phuong Anh said that the family will create all conditions for her to pursue her passion. Her talent and the support and facilitation of her family will be the driving force to help Phuong Anh achieve even higher achievements, contributing to the further development of chess in Nghe An province in the future.