The tournament is expected to attract more than 100 players from 13 nations including Hungary, India, South Africa, Australia, Switzerland, China, Ukraine, the Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Uganda and the host Vietnam .

The forty-eight players from Vietnam will compete in the nine-round Swiss-style contest.

China has 30 competitors attending the tournament.

The total prize value is 30,000 USD, with 10,000 USD for the winner.

This year’s tournament is considered the strongest organised in Vietnam with high quality and leading players.

The Vietnamese super grandmaster Le Quang Liem with an Elo rating of 2 ,709 is believed to be the strongest competitor and the potential winner of the contest.

Competing with Liem are other super grandmasters including Hungarian player Berkes Ferenc (Elo 2,702) and Chinese players Yu Yangyi (2,696), Zhou Jianchao (2,595) and Zhou Weiqi (2,590).

Last year, Chinese players overwhelmed all participants to seize first prize.