Fresh off winning a gold medal in the blitz event at the 2026 ASEAN Age-Group Chess Championships (officially the ASEAN+ Age-Group Chess Championships), Grandmaster Le Tuan Minh entered the tournament featuring many of the world's top players.

Despite an early setback with a first-round loss, the Vietnamese representative mounted an extraordinary comeback, stringing together nine consecutive victories before drawing his final game to close the 11-round tournament with 9.5 points.

This result placed Minh tied on points with Grandmasters Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran and Arjun Erigaisi of India, but the Vietnamese player secured the title on tiebreak criteria. On his path to victory, Minh defeated several prominent Grandmasters, including Chile’s Rodrigo Vasquez, India’s Bharath Subramaniyam H. Harishankkar, and Ukraine’s Oleksandr Bortnyk.

Notably, Minh became the first Vietnamese player to claim the title since the tournament raised its weekly prize pool to US$10,000, taking home the US$2,500 first-place prize (approximately VND65 million).

This week’s edition proved particularly fierce, featuring the top three finishers from the recent Esports World Cup (EWC): Magnus Carlsen, Denis Lazavik, and Hikaru Nakamura. However, all three struggled in what Nakamura jokingly described on his livestream as "post-EWC syndrome." Carlsen withdrew after the eighth round after losing contention, while Nakamura was the only player among the trio to reach the top 20, finishing fifth with 9 points.

Several other top Vietnamese players also competed in the event. Prodigy Dau Khuong Duy finished 14th with 8.5 points, while Vietnam's top-ranked player, Le Quang Liem, placed 22nd with 8 points.

Established in 2022 by Chess.com, Titled Tuesday is a prestigious weekly 11-round Swiss-system online blitz tournament that regularly attracts the world's elite stars.

Le Tuan Minh claims Asian blitz chess gold 2026 after undefeated run

VOV.VN - Vietnamese chess player Le Tuan Minh has marked a new milestone for national chess by securing the gold medal in the blitz event at the Asian Chess Championship 2026, obtaining one of Vietnam's most prominent continental achievements in recent years.