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Nguyen Minh Thang (L) and Grandmaster Ton That Nhu Tung. Photo by Vietnam Chess Federation
Nguyen Minh Thang, vice president and secretary-general of the Vietnam Chess Federation, has stepped down amid mounting controversy over national team selection and an ongoing financial probe, saying he resigned for health reasons.
Tien is expected to convene a meeting of the federation’s executive committee to choose a new secretary-general, though no date has been announced.
Thang, 61, is a veteran chess administrator who has led Vietnamese teams at international tournaments. His resignation follows weeks of criticism directed at the federation’s management.
The most prominent dispute involved the selection of players for the 2026 Chess Olympiad. Grandmaster Pham Le Thao Nguyen said registration for the tournament was handled through an internal group chat over a short weekend window. She said she and Grandmaster Luong Phuong Hanh were left off the final team simply because they responded a few hours late, even though they had already arranged the personal funding needed to compete.
The case triggered calls from the chess community for a more transparent selection system with clear criteria announced in advance.
Days later, Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son published a long open letter on social media saying he would no longer play standard chess for Vietnam’s national team, ending more than two decades of service.
Son said many national team players had spent years covering most of their international competition costs themselves, arranging their own logistics and handling their own training preparation. He also criticized the selection process as inconsistent and opaque.
In a later interview with VnExpress, Son warned that Vietnamese chess was losing ground to regional rivals. He said Vietnam’s men’s team, which ranked third in Asia by average Elo rating in 2016, and the women’s team, then ranked fourth, had both fallen toward the bottom of Asia’s top six.
The federation is also under scrutiny over financial issues linked to international training courses for chess coaches and teachers.
On May 23, the World Chess Federation, or FIDE, asked the VCF to cooperate in verifying financial matters related to two training courses recently held in Hai Phong and Ho Chi Minh City.
According to FIDE’s document, some trainees said that besides the publicly announced tuition fee of VND3.5 million (US$133), they were required to pay additional charges to qualify for FIDE certification.
Thang was named by FIDE as part of the verification process. No official conclusion has been announced by FIDE or the parties involved.
