Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem had draws in both the sixth and seventh round of the World Open 2017 chess tournament in the US.

Liem, who has Elo rating of 2727, tied with Yaroslav Zherebukh of America, Elo 2642 and Oliver Barbosa of the Philippines, Elo 2511.

After seven rounds, Liem gained 5.5 points to rank second in the Open category. Jianchao of China topped the group. Zhou beat Farai Mandizha of Zimbabwe and Holden Hernandez of America to have six points.

Liem defeated Zhou in the fifth round.

The World Open featured many Elo-based categories of competition with a total prize pot of US$225,000. Liem will stand to pocket US$20,000 if he is crowned the overall champion of the Open section.

The tournament, which finishes today, functions as a buffer for Liem to reclaim his form after being absent from top-tier international competitions for a long time, as he focused on his academic studies at Webster University in the US.

It also helps the Vietnamese star to warm up in preparation for the Hainan Danzhou Super Grandmaster Chess Tournament, to be held in China on July 8-19. The 11-day event will be a 10-player round-robin, featuring many famous players.

VNS