GM Liêm tops HDBank tournament after five rounds

March 15, 2017 - 09:00

No 2 seed Lê Quang Liêm back in the title race after one win and one draw at the HDBank Cup International Open Chess’s Master category yesterday in HCM City.

Vietnamese Lê Quang Liêm tops the ranking after five rounds. — Photo courtesy of the organisers
Viet Nam News

HÀ NỘI — No 2 seed Lê Quang Liêm has returned in the title race after one win and one draw at the HDBank Cup International Open Chess’s Master category yesterday in HCM City.

The former world blitz chess champion beat teammate International Master (IM) Nguyễn Anh Khôi, the youngest master of the category, in the fourth round before taking a draw against one of two leading Grandmaster (GM) Wang Hao of China in the next match.

GM Liêm now has four points and will play GM Goganov Aleksey of Russia who is now sitting at No 5.

Wang who drops to second position will meet No 1 seed Wei Yi of China.

GM Wei ranks third, followed by country-fellow Bu Xiangzhi who beat Việt Nam’s IM Trần Tuấn Minh yesterday. Minh who was in top position after the third round fell to the No 8 with 3.5 points.

In the Challengers category, the Vietnamese masters set up their domination as they secured the top 11 positions in the rankings.

Nguyễn Huỳnh Tuấn Hải showed a perfect performance with all five wins to take No 1 seat. He is followed by Phạm Minh Hiếu and Phan Phương Đức.

The tournament will continue until Friday and a bonus of US$45,000 will be delivered to the winners. — VNS

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