Liem wins first two matches of Spice Cup 2013

Top Vietnamese chess player Le Quang Liem got off to a good start with victories in his two first matches at the 2013 Spice Cup Chess Tournament in the United States.

Liem, the tournament’s top seed with an Elo rating of 2712, defeated Americans Akshat Chandra (Elo 2318) and Kayden Troff (Elo 2431) in his first two matches on October 16 and 17.

Quang Liem’s third opponent will be US grandmaster Aleksandr Lenderman (Elo 2539), who won the title at the World U-16 Championships in 2005.

Le Quang Liem was crowned champion at the 2011 Spice Cup and claimed the second spot at the tournament in 2012.

This year’s Spice Cup boasts total prize money of US$12,000, including US$4,000 for the champion.

Students to compete at Asian tourney

Viet Nam will compete in an Asian football tournament for under-17 students in Thailand from November 6 to 16.

HCM City's U17 team will represent Viet Nam at the event.

Coach Do Hoang Son said there were several outstanding players in his team who would compete at the First Division in HCM City next year.

Nat’l shooting champs to start next week

The 49th national shooting championship will be held at the National Sports Training Centre in Hanoi from October 22 – November 1.

Sharpshooters will compete in 14 categories for men and 10 categories for women for individual and team medals.

The event provides an opportunity for shooters to sharpen their skill, and selected to the national team for the 27 th Southeast Asia Games (SEA Games) later this year in Myanmar.-

Women footballers make final preparations

Viet Nam's women's football team embarked on their final preparations for the 27th Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar in December at a training centre on Tuesday.

Coach Chen Yun Fa has called up five new faces, and Chuong Thi Kieu has returned to the team after a long injury lay-off.

The team will hit the gym in Da Lat for five days before returning to the training centre. An overseas training camp is also scheduled before the team head to Myanmar.

Tien Minh disqualified from Denmark Open 2013

Vietnamese badminton player Nguyen Tien Minh was beaten 1-2 by Chong Wei Feng from Malaysia in the first match of Denmark Open 2013 on October 16.

He had defeated the Malaysian rival in the three previous matches but failed this time.

Despite winning a score of 21-19 in the first set, he was beaten 21-18 and 21-7 in the second and third sets.

After returning to Vietnam, Minh will gear up for Vietnam Open in Ho Chi Minh City and the 27th SEA Games in Myanmar.

Tam speeds to road-race glory

Nguyen Thanh Tam sprinted to victory in the men's road race event at the National Cycling Championships which wrapped up yesterday in Vung Tau City.

Tam finished the 155km tour with a time of 3hr 50.38min, reaching an average speed of 40.324km/h.

The An Giang-based athlete was among the first riders who launched the first attack in the final race of the championships.

They led the whole peloton for over 10km before being caught by the Military squad.

At the 25km to the finish mark, Huynh Thanh Tung of the Military and Tam escaped from all the other riders to set up a tete-a-tete finish. Tam came out on top at the crucial moment to win An Giang's sixth gold medal. Tung finished second and the third place went to his teammate Tran Le Minh Tuan.

With three athletes finishing in the first group the Military won the team event with a time of 11:42.15, followed by An Giang and Vinh Long.

An Giang with six gold, five silver and two bronze medals in total, placing them at the top of the tournament rankings.

Binh Duong unexpectedly finished second, with three golds, two silvers and two bronzes.

HCM City came third with three golds, one silver and three bronzes.

A terrain cycling round will be organised separately on October 22 and 23 in Hoa Binh Province.

World futsal champs Brazil to compete in HCM City

World futsal champions Brazil will compete at an international tournament that will kick off next month at Phu Tho Indoor Stadium in HCM City.

Tran Anh Tu, chairman of the HCM City Football Federation, said that besides Brazil, Thailand and Japan will be taking part in the four-team tournament which will run from November 19-22.

The hosts will play Japan first, followed by Thailand and Brazil.