HA NOI — Viet Nam will organise three international chess competitions this year.

The first one, HDBank Cup Open Chess Tournament, will be held from March 1-8 in HCM City, where the winners are set walk away with a bonus of US$30,000.

In the tournament's first edition in 2011, Vietnamese player Nguyen Thi Mai Hung successfully took the women's title while Yu Yangyi of China won the men's category.

The second event, which is considered as part of the qualifiers for the 2013 World Cup, will be the Asian Continental Chess Championships held in May. Winners of the event will receive an official ticket to the World Cup, which will be held in Norway from August 10-September 5.

Last year at the Asian championship in Iran, Vietnamese International Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son pocketed a bronze in the men's pool while his teammate and girlfriend Pham Le Thao Nguyen won a silver medal.

The third competition is the ASEAN and Age Groups Chess Championships in June in Hue City.

Viet Nam are the defending champions in the age group event with 51 gold, 21 silver and 30 bronze medals pocketed in Indonesia at the tournament in June last year. — VNS