China is missing all the masters in the Asian chess tournament.

The China Xiangqi Association (CXA) has announced that it will hold the selection for the 2024 Asian Championship in Singapore from December 2 to 7. The selection will take place in Taizhou City, Jiangsu Province, from October 25 to 27. The top two players in this round will represent China in Singapore.

The problem is that the tournament rules only allow players born after January 1, 2006 to participate, meaning they must be 18 years old or younger. That means that masters like Trinh Duy Dong, Manh Phon Due, Manh Than, Trieu Ham Ham or Lu Kham will not be able to participate.

There are 10 players who qualified for the selection round, including Mac Tu Kien and Trang Tu Hien of Guangdong team, Than An Huyen and Duong Diem Hao of Zhejiang team, Man Nhan of Sichuan team, Duong The Triet from Hebei team, Du Than Hao from Anhui team, Co Bac Van of Shanghai team, Liu Tan Ao of Shandong team and Liu Bach Hong of Jiangsu team.

The Chinese chess scandal started with a recording of a conversation between Grandmaster Wang Yaofei and Hao Jichao, which mentioned Wang Tianyi fixing matches. "Blind Chess King" Dang Phi and veteran Liu Dahua denounced Tianyi, causing CXA and the police to investigate. The world's number one chess player was arrested and banned for life from competing in tournaments organized by CXA.

Not only Thien Nhat, many Chinese chess masters are also being investigated for match-fixing, which has prevented them from competing at the highest level. The country's largest chess tournaments have also been postponed.

The crisis in China's chess tournament opened up an opportunity for Vietnamese players to win the Asian individual championship for the second time in history. The tournament has been held in odd years, the first time in 1981, and has been held 19 times so far. Of which, Chinese players have won 18 times in the men's category, while Vietnam won once in 2011 in Macao thanks to Nguyen Hoang Lam.

The most recent tournament took place in Kuala Lumpur in 2019, with Trinh Duy Dong winning the championship.

Vietnam will participate in the 2024 Asian tournament with two male players, Nguyen Minh Nhat Quang and Vu Quoc Dat. Quoc Dat is the reigning national individual standard chess champion, while Nhat Quang won the title in 2022. Two accomplished players, Nguyen Thanh Bao and Lai Ly Huynh, will not be on the team this time.

In the women's group, Nguyen Hoang Yen represents Vietnam at the Asian tournament.