Vietnamese chess star Le Quang Liem.

Liem concluded his rapid chess campaign (Nov. 6-8) in seventh place following a nine-game run of one win, six draws and two losses.

However, when moving on to the blitz event on Saturday, the Vietnamese star delivered an amazing display going through the first nine games unbeaten to move up to third in the provisional standings with 15 points.

Liem kick-started his blitz campaign with a victory against Anton Korobov (Ukraine), who led the table after the rapid chess competition. After drawing with Sergey Karjakin (Russia) and Levon Aronian (Armenia), the Ho Chi Minh City-born player blasted four successive victories against Viswanathan Anand (India), Vladislav Artemiev (Russia), Wesley So (Philippines) and Anish Giri (Netherlands).

Liem wrapped up the day with seven points of the maximal nine points available as he tied with Fabiano Caruana (US) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan). Levon Aronian was the second best performer in the first nine blitz games with 5.5 points.

If he continues with such brilliant form in the remaining blitz games today, Liem stands a high possibility of winning the Grand Tour tournament for the first time.

The Superbet Rapid & Blitz, taking place in the Stejarii Country Club in Bucharest, Romania, is the sixth out of a total of eight events in the 2019 Grand Chess Tour. Seven of the 12 tour “regulars”, including Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Viswanathan Anand, Levon Aronian, Sergey Karjakin and Wesley So, are joined by event wild cards Vlasidlav Artemiev, Le Quang Liem and Anton Korobov.

Participants are competing over nine rounds of rapid and 18 rounds of blitz chess for a prize fund of US$150,000. Nhan Dan