Vietnam's world top 7 cueist advances to McCreery champs in US

By Dang Khoa March 12, 2020 | 07:00 pm PT

Tran Quyet Chien at the Blankenberge World Cup three-cushion, Belgium, June 2019. Photo courtesy of the Blankenberge World Cup.

Tran Quyet Chien is among seven elite carom billiards players to compete at the McCreery Champion of Champions in the U.S.

Chien was invited to the event in October after finishing seventh in the World Union of Billiards (UMB) rankings last year.

He will join the Netherlands' Dick Jaspers, Italy's Marco Zanetti, Sweden's Torbjorn Blomdahl, Belgium's Eddy Merckx, Turkey's Tayfun Tasdemir, and South Korea's Haeng Jik Kim at the Golden Nugget Casino in Las Vegas from October 11 to 17.

The field will consist of 18 players vying for a top prize of $200,000.

The event will include an additional qualifying round at the Intercontinental Hotel in Dublin, Ireland, in June to single out the top two to be invited to the main event. Vietnam's Nguyen Quoc Nguyen (24th in the 2019 UMB ranking) and Ngo Dinh Nai (29th) are among 10 players competing in the qualifier.

Nine other players will enter with wildcards.

The 36-year-old cuiest from Ha Tinh Province is the first Vietnamese cueist to ever compete in the three-cushion tournament with the biggest prize in the world.

The 2018 McCreery tournament awarded prize money of $600,000, with the top prize of $150,000 won by Belgium's Frederic Caudron.