Ten-year-old chess player Nguyen Anh Khoi was Sunday crowned champion at the World Youth Chess Championships after securing a victory in the 10th round -- his tenth consecutive win at the event, held in Slovenia. The Vietnamese player beat Indian contender Ram Aravind in the Sunday match and grabbed the title regardless of the result of his last game, as he was already standing 1.5 points above the second ranked player. Anh Khoi was thus the most impressive member of the 12-player Vietnamese team at the championships, which ran between November 7 and 19, attracting 1,584 players who competed in the men’s and women’s U-8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 events. The 13th-seeded player defeated strong players from powerful chess nations including Russia, Serbia, Iran, Armenia, and Azerbaijan to achieve the outstanding ten victories in a row. “He started playing chess when he was six and always has been passionate about the sport,” said his mother, Nguyen Thi Thanh Thao, via a phone call from Slovenia. Khoi has been studying chess with international master Nguyen Thanh Son, former champion of the Asian U-20 Chess Championships, and earned a gold medal at the National U-8 chess championships just one year after learning the sport. A year later he took home two gold medals at the Asian U-8 championship, and six more at the Southeast Asian edition. This is the sixth time a Vietnamese chess player has topped the world youth championships. The previous champions include Dao Thien Hai (World U-16 champion in 1993), Nguyen Thi Dung (U-12, 1994), Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (U-10, 2000), Le Quang Liem (U-14, 2005), and Tran Minh Thang (U-8, 2008). “But none was able to win the title with ten victories in a row like Khoi,” commented Vietnamese No.1 player Le Quang Liem, who is competing at the Fujairah International Chess Championship 2012 in the United Arab Emirates. Liem currently ranks 8 out of 58 with 4 points after 6 games. He drew Ma Qun of China in the latest game during the sixth round of the event earlier Monday.