Vietnam’s Lai Ly Huynh reaches final of World Xiangqi Championship

Huynh, 35, drew with China’s Li Dezhi in the eighth and final round on Thursday evening, finishing unbeaten with 13 points from five wins and three draws. 

Chinese players Yuan Sheng and Meng Fenrui also tallied 13 points after drawing their head-to-head match, leaving the finalists to be determined by tiebreak scores.

Yuan led the standings with 85 tiebreak points to claim the first spot in the final. 

Huynh followed with 81 points, narrowly surpassing Meng, who finished with 80, thanks to stronger results when playing black. 

Huynh won four games as black compared with Meng’s two.

One of his most important victories came in Round 7, when he defeated Chong Heung Ming while playing black, boosting his tiebreak advantage. 

He will now face Yuan in the championship final, scheduled for 12:00 pm Vietnam time on Saturday.

Vietnam’s other representative, Nguyen Thanh Bao, was eliminated after drawing with Li Mingjian in Round 7. 

That result, however, proved critical: had Bao won, the Chinese players’ tiebreak scores would have increased, potentially knocking Huynh out of the top two.

Huynh, born in 1990 in Vinh Long Province, is a six-time Vietnamese national champion. 

His best international result so far came at the 2023 World Championship in the United States, where he reached the final before losing to Meng Shen in a dramatic tiebreaker.