The meeting about 3 years ago between the Director of the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center (now the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center) Dao Quoc Thang and the leaders of Son Tay town to discuss the coordination of discovering and training high-performance athletes can be considered a highlight for the town's sports. At that time, Son Tay town's sports were developing steadily in terms of movement and no sport was considered a spearhead. However, after the above meeting, the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center affirmed that it would coordinate to discover, train, and coach the town's athletes to win international medals.

After that, the chess department of the Center was assigned the above task. During a direct survey, the department's coach, International Grandmaster Bui Vinh, clearly recognized the human potential of Son Tay town, suitable for chess.

Among the group of players surveyed, Hanoi coaches have selected a number of players to invest in intensively, including Nguyen Xuan Phuong. Most importantly, can this player's family support their child by taking him from his home in Trung Son Tram ward (Son Tay town) to the chess practice location on Trinh Hoai Duc street?

Fortunately, the family of this young chess player is willing to accompany their son in the direction of "no money, no credit". On the days when Xuan Phuong goes to practice at the training site in Trinh Hoai Duc, Ms. Nguyen Thi Thom - the player's mother, takes her son by bus to be on time for practice at 7:00 p.m. Her husband rides a motorbike from Son Tay town to Trinh Hoai Duc street to pick up the mother and son after each practice session, usually around 9:00 p.m. The total journey to and from each practice session is about 80km, taking place over many days and contributing to bringing sweet fruit to this young chess player as well as Hanoi chess and Son Tay town sports. Medals at international tournament levels come to this chess player one after another...

In particular, at the 2023 Southeast Asian Youth Chess Championship in Thailand, Nguyen Xuan Phuong competed in the U8 age group, winning 5 Gold Medals and 1 Silver Medal for both individual and team events in standard, rapid and blitz chess.

At the 2023 Asian Youth Chess Championship in the United Arab Emirates, this boy born in 2015 competed in standard chess, rapid chess, and blitz chess. Nguyen Xuan Phuong won 2 Gold Medals, 1 Silver Medal in the team event; 1 Silver Medal and 1 Bronze Medal in the individual event in the U8 age group.

And at the 2025 World Youth Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship, which took place in Greece in mid-April, Xuan Phuong won the bronze medal in the U10 Blitz individual. It was a bit of a pity that the Son Tay player lost the last two games. If he had only won one of these two games, Xuan Phuong would have been crowned champion.

After this tournament, in an interview, Coach Bui Vinh said that of course it is not the final goal but should only be considered the beginning. Nguyen Xuan Phuong and many other young players who won the recent world tournament still need to make more efforts and receive more investment to become international Grandmasters, thereby being able to make a living from their profession. In addition to professional training, these players also need to practice English to be able to access chess documents (currently 90% of documents are in English), learn chess online and directly with foreign coaches. At the same time, they need to be confident in communicating, thereby solving problems in international competitions, and at the same time building an image for Vietnamese chess as well as themselves.

In some ways, the recent U10 World Blitz Chess Bronze Medal is also an encouragement for those working at the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center as well as Son Tay Sports. Deputy Director of the Son Tay Culture, Information and Sports Center Lai Huu Quang said that this is the best achievement ever of an athlete discovered from the town's sports movement. "It also affirms the right direction and the right way of coordinating between the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Center and localities to develop the movement in breadth and depth," said Mr. Lai Huu Quang.

Source: https://hanoimoi.vn/diem-nhan-tu-tam-huy-chuong-co-vua-tre-the-gioi-700823.html