GM Nguyễn Ngọc Truờng Sơn plays his first match at the FIDE World Cup in Russia. Photo FIDE

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Grandmasters Lê Quang Liêm and Nguyễn Ngọc Truờng Sơn drew their first round first matches at the Russian FIDE World Cup chess tournament early yesterday Hà Nội time.

GM Liêm, Elo rating of 2,726 and world No 34 failed to beat Aleksandrov Aleksej who has 2,571 Elo points and places No 317 in the world. The Belarusian forced Liêm to a draw after 41 moves.

At the same time, GM Sơn, world No 130, took a respectable draw against rising star Kirill Alekseenko of the hosts, who is No 69, after 30 moves.

Competitors will play the second match of the first round today.

The tournament features 128 entrants competing for a total of US$1.6 million. Among them 120 are Grandmasters, five International Masters and two FIDE Masters and just Mongolian Sugar Gan-Erdene is untitled. VNS