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Vietnamese player beat former world champion in Chess Olympiad for people with disabilities
  • | Nhan Dan | November 24, 2020 10:00 PM
Vietnamese chess player Nguyen Van Quan defeated former world champion Indian Shashikant Kutwal in the first Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities on November 23.


Nguyen Van Quan competes in the HDBank International Chess Tournament 2018.

Van Quan started poorly as he spent more time on counter moves. But he then deployed good moves to force his opponent into mistakes before sealing the victory in the 54th move.


Van Quan is a disabled chess player with the highest Elo rating in Vietnam (1,783), while Shashikant Kutwal was crowned the world competition in 2017 and thereby earned the International Master (IM) title.

Van Quan’s amazing win against Kutwal, however, was not enough to rescue the Vietnamese team from a 1.5-2.5 defeat against their Indian counterparts, as his teammates lost two and drew one in the remaining three games.

Vietnam had previously defeated Kazakhstan (2.5-1.5) and Romania (4-0) in the first two rounds.

After three rounds, Vietnam temporarily stood in 14th with four points, which is a positive result as Vietnam’s initial average Elo rating is just ranked 46th. The team will face Colombia in the fourth round, scheduled to commence at 9pm today.

The Online Chess Olympiad for People with Disabilities is taking place from November 21 to December 2 with the participation of 396 players on 61 teams from 45 countries and territories, including two grandmasters and 12 IMs.

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