VietNamNet Bridge - Good news has come to Vietnam’s top chessman Le Quang Liem. His position in FIDE’s latest rankings for April 2013 is 27th, three grades up from March. Liem is getting closer to the highest position that he has ever achieved on FIDE rankings in mid-2011 (25th).

 

Liem is the champion of the HDBank chess tournament 2013.

Liem’s new Elo is 2,717, a little more than the calculation of the 2700chess.com (2716.8). Thus, he has regained the Elo 2117 that he used to have in September 2011. At that time, Liem ranked 25th in the world.

Liem will have the opportunity to improve his rankings and Elo when attending the Asian Championships that will take place from May 17 to 27 in Manila, Philippines.

This is also an opportunity for Liem to win a ticket to the World Cup Chess that is scheduled at the end of the year.

Earlier, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son won a card of the region 3.3 after ranking top at the championship of this region early this year.

In other chess news, Women's International Master (WIM) Vo Thi Kim Phung is in second place in the ranking table at the ongoing Asian Juniors Chess Championships in Sharjah, the United Arabia Emirates.

Phung shares 3.5 points with the current leader, WIM Hakimifard Ghazal of Iran, after three wins and one draw but ranks second because of lower tie-break points.

No 1 seed WIM Nguyen Thi Mai Hung dropped to fourth place although she also had 3.5 points.

On the men's side, FIDE Master Tran Tuan Minh, the only representative from Viet Nam pocketed 2.5 points, ranking at 12th.

The event will conclude on April 6. 

FIDE top 30 in April 2013:

 

 
Nam Nguyen