Vietnamese Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm (left) competes in the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Hungary. — Photo FIDE

HÀ NỘI — With Lê Quang Liêm's victory, the Vietnamese chess team have achieved a 2-2 draw against championship contender China, continuing their unbeaten streak after the sixth round of the 2024 Chess Olympiad in Hungary.

Before entering the sixth round, both Việt Nam and China on Monday had won all five of their matches, earning ten points and placing them among the top three teams alongside India. This highly anticipated confrontation was expected to be intense, with China fielding three super grandmasters.

The first match of round six saw Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn (Elo 2,633) draw with Wei Yi (Elo 2,762) after 15 moves. Next, Trần Tuấn Minh (Elo 2,434) lost to Wang Yue, the eighth-ranked player in the world with an Elo score of 2,637. Lê Tuấn Minh (Elo 2,564) also drew with Yu Yangyi (Elo 2,703) after 52 moves.

In the final match of the sixth round, Grandmaster Liêm, ranked 14th in the world with an Elo score of 2,434, defeated Ding Liren, the 2023 world champion with an Elo score of 2,800, after 62 moves.

With this 2-2 draw, the Vietnamese men's team ranked second overall. Meanwhile, the Vietnamese women's chess team are currently ranked 23rd after their loss to Azerbaijan (1.5 – 2.5), keeping them out of the top 20.

In the next round, the Vietnamese men's team will face Iran, while the women's team will compete against the Czech Republic.

The Chess Olympiad is a biennial tournament open to players from around the world. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, an online Chess Olympiad was held in 2021. This year, the tournament features 197 teams in the men's event and 180 teams in the women's event. VNS