Hanoi chess "locomotive" Le Tuan Minh

Photo: Le Tuan Minh (second from right) at the 2024 Chess Olympiad. Photo: FIDE

Most recently, on the occasion of the 94th anniversary of the founding of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, Le Tuan Minh was honored by the Hanoi Youth Union as one of the 10 Outstanding Young Faces of the Capital in 2024. In addition to Le Tuan Minh, there was another sports face honored on this occasion, player Do Duy Manh (football). It has been a long time since Hanoi chess had an athlete honored with this prestigious award. For those who work in Hanoi chess as well as for Le Tuan Minh in particular, it is truly a great honor.

In another honor ceremony of the Hanoi Sports Industry on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of Vietnam Sports Day (March 27, 1946 - March 27, 2025), Le Tuan Minh was also honored in the group of athletes with many outstanding achievements, contributing to Hanoi sports in 2024.

For those in the profession, the fact that Le Tuan Minh has been continuously honored in the past time is completely worthy of the efforts of this player and his family. Success came quite late for Le Tuan Minh, born in 1996, compared to the general level of chess. This is also because this player wanted to focus on completing his cultural studies so he could not wholeheartedly devote himself to professional competition. When he decided to completely pursue professional chess, success continuously came to him.

About 3-4 years ago, Le Tuan Minh gradually became the leader of the Hanoi chess team, and the country's leading player in rapid and blitz chess. In 2022, at the 31st SEA Games at home, Le Tuan Minh surpassed his senior Le Quang Liem to win the men's blitz individual gold medal. After that, Le Tuan Minh and Le Quang Liem won the men's blitz team gold medal at the Games.

Those were the first strong impressions in the international arena in the national team jersey. Although he is good at rapid and blitz chess, Le Tuan Minh still finds a way to rise in the most prestigious category in chess, standard chess. Continuous international competitions with the support and companionship of his family, Hanoi sports finally bore fruit when Le Tuan Minh qualified enough to be awarded the title of International Grandmaster in 2022.

2024 is considered the explosive year of Le Tuan Minh. At the age of 28, this player won the individual bronze medal at his table at the World Team Chess Championship - Olympiad 2024 in Hungary. Thanks to that, Le Tuan Minh became the 5th player in the history of Vietnamese chess to win an individual medal at the Olympiad arena, considered the most prestigious in world chess. Previously, Vietnamese chess had Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, Pham Le Thao Nguyen, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and former player Hoang Thanh Trang winning medals at the Olympiad. Le Tuan Minh is also the first Hanoi player to win a medal at this prestigious playground. For those in the profession, that bronze medal is extremely prestigious when Le Tuan Minh's table had nearly 200 players from nearly 200 countries, regions and territories participating with extremely fierce competition.

In early March, Le Tuan Minh also proved his leading role in Hanoi chess when he won 2 gold medals in 3 events at the 2025 National Chess Championship. Le Tuan Minh's 2 gold medals were also the 2 gold medals of the Hanoi delegation at the tournament, thereby continuing to maintain the leading position of chess in the country. At the upcoming international tournaments of Vietnamese chess, Le Tuan Minh is also considered the top choice alongside seniors such as Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son.

International Grandmaster Bui Vinh, also a coach at the chess team (Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center), said that Le Tuan Minh has excellent qualities to pursue professional chess thanks to his calmness, certainty and also his creativity and innovation in competition. Besides this rivalry, he always has the support of his family to be able to cover his own expenses in many international tournaments. Thereby, he does not have to rely entirely on competition funding from the budget allocated to the Hanoi chess department. The fact that Le Tuan Minh has received a Bachelor's degree from the University of Law is also a favorable condition for him to wholeheartedly devote himself to professional chess competition, continuing to be the leader of the Hanoi chess team in the future.

Talking about the honors he has received in the past, Grandmaster Le Tuan Minh humbly said that it is the motivation for him to confidently pursue his career. Chess matches are always competitive, so he still has to work hard every day, every hour to be able to make a living from his career.

That is also what every athlete needs to have in order to bring glory to themselves as well as to the sports unit where they join as well as to Vietnamese sports.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/dau-tau-co-vua-ha-noi-le-tuan-minh-697042.html