The fifth HDBank Cup International Open Chess tournament will be organised from March 16 to 23 in HCM City.

Nearly 80 chess masters will compete for a huge bonus of US$35,000, of which $12,000 is for the champion.

Vietnamese players Le Quang Liem, world number 65, and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, world number 91, are the two top seeds respectively.

Son is the defending champion, while Liem was ranked third last year.

They will play against Rakhmanov Aleksandr of Russia, and Sadorra Julio Catalino and Gomez John Paul from the Philippines.

This year, the organisers are allowing female players to compete against male players. The female player with the highest score will bag $3,000. 

VNS