Hoa Nguyen makes it a hat-trick in India!

by Sagar Shah - 30/12/2017

Vietnamese GM Hoa Nguyen now has one of the most enviable records on Indian soil. He has won a hat trick of grandmaster events in India. First one was the KIIT open in Bhubaneshwar, next one was the Mayors Cup in Mumbai and now the Bhopal International 2017. The last round began with a five way tie, but Hoa Nguyen made sure that he won the top prize by beating GM Ivan Rozum. The second place was captured by Malaysian Li Tian Yeoh, while the third place went to GM Tran Tuan Minh. Full final report with pictures, videos and more.

There are good players in the world, and then there are champions! In order to become champion material in chess you need to play the last rounds well. And in order to play the last rounds well you need to have strong nerves! That's what Hoa Nguyen excels in. The last three grandmaster events that he has participated in, he has won all of them starting from KIIT Open in Bhubaneshwar, Mayor's Cup in Mumbai and now the Bhopal International 2017. How does he do it? "I just wanted to play chess!", says Hoa after the game. The result, prize money, standing all of it comes later. His first aim is to play chess, and make good moves. That's his secret! Quite simple to understand, but extremely difficult to implement!

Hoa Nguyen - the master of Indian grandmaster tournaments

In the last round Hoa Nguyen was against the very strong Russian Ivan Rozum. The Vietnamese GM played a solid game of chess. Ivan made some errors in the game and before you knew it Nguyen Duc Hoa was on his way to victory!

The Vietnamese GM went back home richer by Rs.2,00,000

Nguyen Hoa speaks to yours truly after the game

Final rankings after round 10

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	7	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa		VIE	2504	Vietnam	8,5	0,0	62,0	67,0	56,25	7,0
2	8	IM	Yeoh Li Tian		MAS	2480	Malaysia	8,0	0,0	62,5	67,0	52,75	6,0
3	6	GM	Tran Tuan Minh		VIE	2544	Vietnam	8,0	0,0	60,5	66,0	52,25	7,0
4	5	GM	Atalik Suat		TUR	2545	Turkey	8,0	0,0	58,5	63,0	48,50	6,0
5	27	FM	Shailesh Dravid		IND	2306	Maharashtra	8,0	0,0	57,5	62,5	49,50	6,0
6	15	CM	Gukesh D		IND	2362	Andhra Pradesh	8,0	0,0	56,5	61,5	48,75	7,0
7	3	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2575	Ukraine	8,0	0,0	56,0	60,5	48,00	7,0
8	2	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2595	Russia	7,5	0,0	64,5	70,0	50,25	6,0
9	1	GM	Gareyev Timur		USA	2606	USA	7,5	0,0	62,0	67,0	47,75	7,0
10	24	IM	Sangma Rahul		IND	2311	Delhi	7,5	0,0	61,5	66,0	45,75	6,0
11	12	IM	Girish A. Koushik		IND	2412	Karnataka	7,5	0,0	60,0	65,0	47,00	6,0
12	9	GM	Himanshu Sharma		IND	2469	Haryana	7,5	0,0	59,5	64,5	47,25	7,0
13	92		Harshavardhan G B		IND	1984	Tamil Nadu	7,5	0,0	55,5	59,5	41,50	7,0
14	35		Prakash Ram		IND	2245	Punjab	7,5	0,0	51,0	54,5	40,25	6,0
15	10	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad		TJK	2451	Tajikistan	7,0	0,0	62,0	67,5	45,00	5,0

Full ranking list

Malaysian Li Tian Yeoh finished second and took home Rs.1,50,000

GM Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam is the new rising star of his country. He finished third.

GM Suat Atalik won his last round game against M. Kunal, remained unbeaten and finished fourth

Shailesh Dravid was the highest ranked in the tournament. He played a beautiful last round game to beat IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev. Here's his interview in which he analyzes the game: