Got up with the sun, no birds in Saigon to greet me like in Bali, walked to Tao Dan Park feeling fresh and did muscle work on the bars. Walked to the studio and packed my chess set and walked to the Sciences Library for a morning chess study session, afterwards walked to the Rex Hotel and paid the 1,765,000d fee ($77), I gave the guy managing the registration 2,000,000d and instead of giving me back 235,000d he gave me 35,000d and after taking a few steps from his station I saw that he shorted me 200k and I recalled getting short changed 100k in Nha Trang by the market lady, it looks like many people practice the art of the short change on foreigners, not a big deal, just have to be aware of the correct amount I am to receive back and if shorted request for them to pay the correct amount. After getting the 200k I walked to the 2nd floor of the hotel and checked out the tournament hall, sets and clocks are provided which is convenient. Round one starts at 15:30, 3 hours from now, so time to take a nap and get ready for the first of nine chess battles....
.... Round 1 is complete, played a 1561 FIDE rated woman and drew with the black pieces, she opened with 1. d4 and I opted for 1. ..Nf6 and we went into a Nimzo-Indian. According to computer analysis we both played fairly accurately throughout the 68 move game, I made one losing move/blunder late in the game when I had 90 seconds on my clock but I was lucky because it went unpunished and after she made her move it was back to equality and a draw was secured.
Game Notation -
[Event "HD Bank International Chess Tournament"]
[Site "Saigon, Vietnam"]
[Date "March 7,2019"]
[Round "1"]
[White "Nguyen Ngo Lien Huong"]
[Black "JWW"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E20"]
[Opening "Nimzo-Indian defense"]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Bd2 O-O 5.Nf3 c5 6.e3 d5 7.a3 Bxc3 8.Bxc3 Ne4 9.
dxc5 Nxc3 10.bxc3 Qa5 11.Qc2 Qxc5 12.cxd5 exd5 13.Bd3 g6 14.O-O Nc6 15.Rfc1
Bg4 16.Nd4 Rac8 17.h3 Bd7 18.Qb2 Ne5 19.Be2 Rc7 20.Qb4 Rfc8 21.Nb3 Qxb4 22.
cxb4 Rxc1+ 23.Rxc1 Nc4 24.Nc5 Nd6 25.Rd1 Be6 26.Bf3 b6 27.Bxd5 Bxd5 28.Rxd5
Nc4 29.Ne4 Nxa3 30.Rd7 Nb5 31.Ng5 Rc7 32.Rd5 Nc3 33.Rd3 h6 34.Nf3 Na2 35.Rd4
Kg7 36.Ne5 h5 37.g4 hxg4 38.Rxg4 Kf6 39.Nc4 Nxb4 40.Nxb6 axb6 41.Rxb4 Rb7 42.
Kf1 g5 43.Ke2 b5 44.Kd3 Ke5 45.Kc3 Kd5 46.Rd4+ Kc5 47.h4 gxh4 48.Rxh4 Rd7 49.
Rf4 Rc7 50.Rf5+ Kb6+ 51.Kb4 Rc4+ 52.Kb3 Rc7 53.e4 Ka5 54.f3 Rd7 55.e5 Rd3+ 56.
Kc2 Rd7 57.Rf4 Rd5 58.Rf5 Ka4 59.f4 b4 60.Rxf7 b3+ 61.Kb2 Rd2+ 62.Kc1 Re2 63.
Ra7+ Kb5 64.Rd7 Kc4 65.Rc7+ Kd3 66.Rd7+ Kc3 67.Rc7+ Kd3 68.Rd7+ Kc3 1/2-1/2
Van Wely, Loek (NED) - Le, Minh Hoang (VIE)