World no. 3 Tran Quyet Chien (second from left) and other leading Vietnamese cueists.

Chien’s UMB promotion came as a result of his excellent performance at the recent 10th Asian Carom Billiards Championship 2019 in Ho Chi Minh City, during which he narrowly beat world billiards prodigy Cho Myung-woo 40-38 to claim the three-cushion carom title.

The triumph earned him 80 bonus rating points. After deducting 36 points for having to defend his quarterfinal berth last year, Chien got an additional 54 points to break into the world’s top three cueists with 318 points.

This is the highest world rating attained by a Vietnamese billiard player thus far. However, Chien has a big challenge ahead as he must defend 80 points at the upcoming Three-Cushion Carom World Cup in HCM City later this month, where he is the reigning champion.

By climbing to third place in the UMB Rankings, Tran Quyet Chien has set a new milestone for Vietnamese billiards.

Another Vietnamese player, Do Nguyen Trung Hau, who lost to Chien in the Asian semifinal, also climbed up six places to world no. 43 with 79 points. Trung Hau was considered an interesting phenomenon of the tournament as he overcame many higher-rated opponents, including the 2018 champion Cho Jae-ho (Republic of Korea) in the quarterfinals.

By advancing to the quarterfinals in the continental championship, Vietnam’s Duong Anh Vu was promoted to 31st position in the world rankings with 105 points.

Vietnam’s no. 2 player, Nguyen Quoc Nguyen, dropped two places to world no. 11 after crashing out in the round of 32.

Failing to defend his Asian title, Cho Jae-ho slipped three spots to world no. 6, while prodigy Cho Myung-woo moved up eight places to 19th in the world.

Nhan Dan