Searching for Vietnam's Chess Prodigy

The Vietnamese Chess Prodigy program was established to maintain and preserve chess - a traditional folk game - suitable for all ages and imbued with the cultural identity of the Vietnamese people. At the same time, this tournament also contributes to developing the movement of practicing and competing in intellectual sports in general and Chess in particular among teenagers and children, contributing to improving physical fitness, training and developing intelligence, building a healthy cultural lifestyle for the future generation of Vietnam. The tournament for players aged 6-12 is also a playground to discover and nurture Chess talents.

The Vietnam Chess Federation in collaboration with VTC Digital Television and the Ministry of Education and Training organized the Vietnamese Chess Prodigy program for players aged 6-12.

In particular, players participating in Vietnamese Chess Prodigy are given Elo coefficients according to the system of the Vietnam Chess Federation. This is the basis for young talents to have the opportunity to be introduced to compete in national and international tournaments, and even wear the national team jersey in the future.

The national Vietnamese Chess Prodigy Program is divided into 3 rounds. The selection round for Vietnamese Chess Prodigy Prospects takes place in localities. Provinces and cities organize their own tournaments or search, select, and introduce players to register to participate in the program from November 2023 to June 2024.

The Vietnam Chess Federation coordinates to organize tournaments in provinces and cities with a scale of 150 players or more. After organizing 1-3 selection tournaments, based on the results of the final tournament in the selection round of Vietnamese Chess Promising Talents, the Organizing Committee will select no more than 20 players to nominate for round 2 - the regional selection round of Vietnamese Chess Promising Talents in 3 regions: North, Central, South taking place in July 2024.

Each regional round will select the 16 best faces to enter the National Finals to find the Vietnamese Chess Prodigy. The Finals are expected to take place on the occasion of the August Revolution and National Day September 2, 2024 in Hanoi.

The organizers also built a system of awards from the selection rounds to the final round. Specifically, the first, second, third, fourth, and fifth place players will receive a scholarship of 1 million VND/month (no more than 3 months until the new round takes place), along with bonuses in the first selection round.

In the regional selection round, the prizes for first, second, third and fourth place are 5 million VND, 4 million VND, 3 million VND and 2 million VND respectively. Players ranked 5-8 will also receive 1 million VND. In addition to the above prizes, players will also receive scholarships of 3,000,000 VND (first prize), 2,000,000 VND (second prize) and 1,000,000 VND for placing 3rd to 8th in each age group.

In the final round, the champion received the title of Vietnamese Chess Prodigy, the Vietnamese Chess Prodigy Cup, a prize of 50,000,000 VND from the Vietnam Chess Federation, a Vietnamese Chess Prodigy certificate from the Vietnam Chess Federation, and a Vietnamese Chess Prodigy scholarship for the next 5 years, worth 3 million VND/month.

The second, third and fourth prize winners also received certificates and cash prizes and scholarships. Players ranked from 5th to 8th received a prize of 2,000,000 VND.

Phuong Mai

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