Vietnamese Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm triumphed in the standard chess category of the Asian Continental Chess Championship in China. Photo sohacdn.com

HÀ NỘI Vietnamese Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm triumphed in the standard chess category of the 2019 Asian Continental Chess Championship which concluded in China on Saturday.

This was the first time the former world blitz chess champion won the Asian title.

Liêm, who has an Elo rating of 2694, beat Sethuraman Panayappan of India (Elo 2613) in the final match after 38 moves.

The HCM City-born player had a total of seven points from nine matches, which proved enough for him to win the championship.

Liêm brought home US$11,000 of prize money.

Karthikeyan Murali and Sethuraman Panayappan were the runners-up with 6.5 points each.

Liêm’s teammate Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn ranked 14th with 5.5 points.

On the women’s side, the nation’s best performer was Phạm Lê Thảo Nguyên who achieved six points. Other competitors included Hoàng Thị Bảo Trâm who finished on 5.5 points, Võ Thị Kim Phụng with five points and Phạm Bích Ngọc also with five points.

In the blitz chess event, Liêm, the number two seed, brought home the silver medal with seven points. The title went to Nihal Sarin of India with eight points. Sơn ranked 18th with 5.5 points.

Vietnamese player Phụng won the silver medal in the blitz chess for women with 6.5 points. Zhai Mo of China took the title with 7.5 points.

The tournament drew the participation of 112 chess players from 19 countries. VNS