Trang comes first at European Chess Champs
(VOV) - Vietnamese Hungarian Hoang Thanh Trang drew with Viktorija Cmilyte (Lithuania) in the last game on August 3, winning the 2013 European Individual Women’s Chess Championship title held in Belgrade, Serbia.
Despite being seeded No.14 with an Elo rating of 2467 at the tournament, she performed well to secure first place in the event.
Trang got seven wins and four draws, gaining a total of 9 points from 11 games.
Worthy of note is that she defeated three former continental champions.
The first is Grandmaster Kateryna Lagno (Elo 2542), who became European champions in 2005 and 2008 and now ranks 7th in the world. She surrendered to Trang in the 6th round after 30 moves.
GM Valentina Gunina (Elo 2507), the 2012 champion and currently placed 13th in the world, accepted defeat in the 8th round.
Chess Queen GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (Elo 2489) lost to Trang in the 10th round. She was awarded the world championship title in 2008 and 2010, and the European championship title in 2004.
In the final 11th round, Trang played 2011 European champion GM Viktorija Cmilyte (Elo 2497), and a draw earned her this year’s title with a cash prize of 11,500 euros.
Hoang Thanh Trang now bears dual citizenship of Vietnam and Hungary. In 2006, she moved to settle in Hungary after having contributed significantly to Vietnamese chess.
She became the first Asian chess player to win the European championship.
The 14th European Individual Women’s Chess Championship this year attracted a total of 168 players from 35 countries.