The fifth HDBank Cup International Open Chess Tournament will see local and international masters pit their skills against each other at the irst Hotel in HCM City, Tan Binh District from March 17 to 23. The quality of the competing players is considered to be the highest since the tournament began in 2011.
The 2015 HDBank International Open Chess Tournament will be organised on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of HDBank. The international tournament is being organised by the bank for the fifth year in a row.
In the last four years the HDBank International Open Chess Tournament attracted 450 chess masters from 22 countries in four continents — Europe, Australia, Asia, and Africa. There has been an increase in the number of participating grandmasters, and number of countries sending players to the tournament has also been growing every year. There has been a breakthrough in the quality of the participants.
In 2011 the ratio of grandmasters in the tournament field was 60%. The figure increased to 61% in 2012, 68% in 2013 and 2014 and 75% this year. Overall, the ratio is 66%.
According to experts, in Asia, the HDBank International Open Chess Tournament is the strongest chess competition besides a Chinese international tournament which offers the highest prize money. In comparison with other chess tournaments in the region, the Vietnamese event has also been highly rated in terms of organisation.
Recently HDBank and the Vietnam Chess Federation signed an agreement to co-operate to organise the HDBank International Open Chess Tournament for thenext five years. Following the agreement, the bank became the official sponsor of the Vietnam national chess team. The agreement proves HDBbank’s strong commitment to the tournament in particular and international chess in general. Organisers have also received strong support from the World Chess Federation in keeping alive and developing the open chess tournament, one of the favourable factors for the oganisers to improve the tournament’s standard in the upcoming years.
Following the success it achieved in the previous four seasons, the 2015 fifth HDBank International Open Chess Tournament has attracted the participation of 85 players from 14 countries. Of them, 44 are Vietnamese and the 41 others come from chess powers like Germany, India, Switzerland, Indonesia, the Philippines, Australia, Singapore, Russia, Ukraine, Uganda, Uzbekistan, Hungary, and China.
Unlike the 2014 tournament, this year will see the participation of players from three countries considered to be developing strongly at chess — Germany, Switzerland, and South Korea. Interestingly, this year’s tournament has attracted several talented players with one of them having an Elo rating of 2,721. The average Elo rating at this tournament is 2,225. This year there are 21 grandmasters (GMs) and woman grandmasters (WGMs), 20 international masters (IMs), Woman International Master (WIMs), 14 FIDE masters (FMs) and woman FIDE masters (WFMs), and 5 candidate masters (CMs) and woman candidate masters (WCMs).
The tournament has attracted world-famous names like Li Chao (China), Aleksandr Rakhmanov (Russia), John Paul Gomez, Julio CatalinoSadorra (Philippines), Padmini Rout(India)… A highlight of this year’s tournament will be the participation of Grandmaster Eugenio Torre (Philippines, Asia’s first GM. He used to be chairman of the Philippines Chess Federation. Representing Vietnam in this year’s tournament will be Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, last year’s winner, Grandmaster Le Quang Liem and other famous players like Dao Thien Hai, Nguyen Duc Hoa, Tran Tuan Minh, Nguyen Anh Khoi, Pham Le Thao Nguyen ,Nguyen Thi Mai Hung …
The 2015 HDBank International Open Chess Tournament willalso have international judges. The total prize money at stake is 35,000 USD. The winner’s prize is 12,000 USD. Besides the top 20 players of the tournament, the organisers will also give away prizes to the top three women players and the top U12 and U14 players.
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