Difficult start for Vietnamese cueists at international billiards tournament

Before his opening match against South Korean cueist Jun Tae-kim on Monday, Chien was considered the stronger player. This was shown in the first set when the 37-year-old easily won 26-9. However, Jun came back to win the second set 19-17. In the third set, Jun continued to take the lead by 10-1 and eventually won the set 13-5 after 15 minutes.

With this defeat, Chien will have to put much more effort into the remaining six games to advance.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen was able to hold off Danish cueist Dion Nelin in an intense match. In the first set, Nguyen took the lead by 10-5, but Nelin turned the tide around to win 15-12. The second set also saw Nguyen taking the lead first, with Nelin making it 15-15 in the last minute.

In the third set, Nguyen won 10-5 and the game ended in a draw.

A screenshot of Nguyen Quoc Nguyen at the UMB 3C Grand Prix on July 5, 2021.

Chien will play Spanish cueist Antonio Montes and South Korea’s Kang Ja-in on Tuesday, while Nguyen faces Turkish cueist Semih Sayginer and Han Ji-eun from South Korea.

UMB 3C Grand Prix 2021 takes place from July 5 to 18 in South Korea and gathers many top-class cueists.

Each game will feature three sets. In the first two sets of 25 minutes each, whoever gets the higher score wins. Later, if the score is a draw, the players will enter the third set, which will last for 15 minutes. Whoever gets a higher score after 15 minutes or reaches 17 points first wins the set.

The winner of this tournament will pocket $300,000.