Vietnamese International Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm. Photo fide.com

HÀ NỘI Vietnamese International Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm has beaten defending European champion Vladislav Artemiev of Russia in the third round of the FIDE World Cup in Russia .

Liêm on Wednesday beat his rival 3.5 – 2.5 in blitz chess to advance to the fourth round of the tournament.

Earlier, both players drew their first and second game in the standard event so they had to play rapid games to decide the winner.

Liêm will face Levon Aronian of Armenia, who was world No 2 in 2014, in the next round.

By reaching the fourth round of 16 players, Liêm will walk away with at least US$25,000.

The US$1.6 million Chess World Cup is a 128-player single-elimination chess tournament held from September 9 to October 4, 2019. VNS