Liem enjoys win in blitz event during Romania Grand Tour

Liem outplayed Anton Korobov (Ukraine) in his first blitz match on Sunday to move within only half a point from the top spot of the standings, before losing the next two against Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia).

The following four games saw the Vietnamese player draw twice with Viswanathan Anand (Indian) and Vladislav Artemiev (Russia) and lose twice against Wesley So (Philippines) and Anish Giri (Netherlands).

The next two successive wins against Fabiano Caruana (US) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) were not enough to bring Liem to the top of the table as he settled for fourth place overall with a total of 19 points, behind Levon Aronian and Sergey Karjakin (20 points) and Viswanathan Anand (19.5 points).

The encouraging result at the Romania Grand Tour earned Liem 88 additional Elo rating points, lifting him to 15th position in the FIDE’s blitz world rankings with an Elo rating of 2,768.

Quang Liem was among the two best blitz chess performers of the tournament, alongside Karjakin, with 11 points from 18 games. The Vietnamese star was also the best among the three invitees, as the other two, Korobov and Artemiev, both scored 18 points.

Next up for Liem will be the chess tournament, slated for December 1-8, at the 30th Southeast Asian (SEA) Games 2019 in the Philippines.

Nhan Dan

Le Quang Liem impressive in blitz chess at Romania Grand Tour

Vietnamese super grandmaster Le Quang Liem performed brilliantly on the first day of blitz chess (November 9) at the ongoing 2019 Superbet Rapid & Blitz in Romania with five wins and four draws.