Vietnam won a total of 121 medals at the 13th ASEAN Open Chess Tournament that closed on June 18 in the central province of Thua Thien Hue to grasp first place.

With 73 gold, 31 silver, and 17 bronze medals, the Vietnamese team ran away with the competition as the runners up, the Philippines, only took 57 medals, followed by Indonesia in third place with 30 medals.

The tournament, held jointly by Vietnam’s General Department of Sports and Physical Training and Thua Thien Hue’s People’s Committee, was just one of a series of events being organised by Hue and the Northern Central region to celebrate the 2012 National Tourism Year.

This event drew more than 400 chess players from across Asia, mainly South East Asian countries, including 264 players from host country Vietnam. The participants were divided into different age groups ranging from 8 to 20, and over 50, to compete for 78 sets of medals in rapid chess (30 minutes), blitz chess (5 minutes) and standard chess (120 minutes).