Từ Hoàng Thông

This is a Vietnamese name; The family name is Từ.

Từ Hoàng Thông (born 22 June 1972 in Ho Chi Minh City) is a Vietnamese chess Grand Master (GM) who has represented Vietnam in ten Chess Olympiads.

Từ Hoàng Thông began studying chess when he was nine years old, at the Children's Cultural House in Ho Chi Minh City, and began playing in youth tournaments the following year. He scored a draw against the Women's World Chess Champion Maya Chiburdanidze while on a Vietnamese - Soviet youth exchange in 1983.

Từ Hoàng Thông won the Vietnamese Chess Championship in 1986 when he was 14 years old, setting the record as the youngest Vietnamese national chess champion. He successfully defended his championship title in 1987 and won again in 1991, 1998, 2000 and 2008.

He won the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Dubai 1991 and Qatar 1992.

Từ Hoàng Thông represented Vietnam in ten consecutive Chess Olympiads from 1990 to 2008. His best result was at the 34th Chess Olympiad in Istanbul 2000, where he scored 8/11 and finished sixth on board 3.

He represented Vietnam in the Asian Team Chess Championship six times from 1991 to 2005, winning the individual bronze medal in Jodhpur 2003, and the team silver medal in Esfahan 2005.

Từ Hoàng Thông represented Vietnam in the Asian Zonal tournaments in Jakarta 1993, Genting Highlands 1995, Dubai 1996, and Phu Quoc 2007, and the Asian Chess Championship in Cebu 2007, Subic Bay 2009, Olongapo 2010, and Ho Chi Minh City 2012.

He won the Australian Masters IM tournament in Melbourne in 1995, ahead of GM Darryl Johansen, and won the Hanoi National Open in 2002.

Từ Hoàng Thông was awarded the title of Grandmaster (GM) in 1999.

In 2009 he co-founded, with his twin brother Tu Hoang Thai, the chess training school Smartchess in Ho Chi Minh City.

In 1997 Từ Hoàng Thông moved to Singapore to provide chess coaching in schools, clubs and private homes for a period of almost ten years, returning to Vietnam at the end of 2006. In May 2008 Từ Hoàng Thông married physiotherapist Dr. Nguyễn Thị Thư. They have one son, and reside in Ho Chi Minh City.