Vietnam's number two chess player enters top int'l bullet semifinals

By Xuan Binh   March 10, 2022 | 04:30 am PT
Le Tuan Minh beat India's Raunak Sadhwani on Thursday to advance to the semifinals of the online Bullet Chess Championship.
Le Tuan Minh at the national chess championship in Hanoi, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Binh

Le Tuan Minh at the national chess championship in Hanoi, 2020. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Binh

Minh led Sadhwani 4-3 after the first 15 minutes, then scored 4.5 more points in the next six games to lead 8.5-4.5. Overall, Minh won 10-7 to advance.

The Bullet Chess Championship was hosted by chess.com for the first time in 2019 with a prize pool of $15,000. It's considered the top bullet chess tournament in the world. In 2022, the prize pool went up to $100,000. The tournament takes place from Feb. 21 to March 17, starting from the qualifiers. Minh has a high Elo rating on bullet on chess.com so didn't have to play the qualifiers.

The main event is a 16-player double elimination knockout bracket. Four qualified players join 12 invited players to play the main event. Players who lose a match go to the losers bracket and if they continue to lose, are eliminated from the event. Grand Finals consist of up to two matches, where a player from the loser bracket has to win twice to become the champion.

A 30-minute countdown clock marks the match duration, with a break at the 15-minute mark with no added time. The higher-rated player starts with white in the first game of the match. Players win 1 point for a win, 0.5 points for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. The player who scores the most points during the match wins.

Minh, 26, is the only non-grandmaster in the semifinals. With an Elo rating of 2,514, he needs another chess title to become one.

 
 
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