4 Vietnamese players passed the World Cup qualifiers

The final qualifying round on October 23 witnessed the high performance of the reigning world runner-up Tran Thanh Luc, when he won both matches against Le Thanh Tien and Gerhard Kostistandky, achieving an efficiency of 3.076 points per turn, the highest in the round.

Thanh Tien lost to Thanh Luc, but then defeated Kostistandky and advanced to the second place with a high efficiency of 2,096 points. Tran Duc Minh and Nguyen Chi Long also finished second with one win and one loss, but were eliminated with an average index of 1,327 points.

The remaining two Vietnamese players in this round also advanced to the next round with the top position. Nguyen Tran Thanh Tu defeated Herbert Szivacz and O Takeshima, while Nguyen Hoan Tat defeated both Peter De Backer and Jeremy Bury.

The World Cup main round has 32 players, of which 17 are direct entrants and 15 are qualified. Vietnam and South Korea lead the way in terms of the number of representatives, with six players. While Thanh Luc, Thanh Tien, Thanh Tu and Hoan Tat qualified, Tran Quyet Chien and Bao Phuong Vinh are directly entered to the main round due to their high positions on the world rankings.

The main round takes place today, October 24, with eight groups of four players each, taking 16 representatives to the round of 16. Quyet Chien, Thanh Luc and Thanh Tien fall into the same group B as Glenn Hofman. Thanh Tu is also expected to have a difficult time against Eddy Merckx, Torbjorn Blomdahl and Nikos Polychronopoulos in group E.

Former world champion Phuong Vinh will be in Group H with Sameh Sidhom, Turgay Orak and Cha Myeong-jong, aiming for his first World Cup title. Hoan Tat will be in Group G with Tayfun Tasdemir, Heo Jung-han and Peter Ceulemans. The competition starts at 3pm Hanoi time.