Vietnamese Grandmaster (GM) Le Quang Liem has been invited by Grand Chess Tour (GCT) to participate in the St. Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament in the US on August 14 - 18.

The event will attract the participation of top chess players including Ivan Nepomniachtchi of the Russia (Elo rating of 2.819), Hikaru Nakamura of the US (2.796), Lenier Dominguez of Cuba (2.803), Viswanathan Anand of India (2.789), Levon Aronian of Armenia (2.797) and Sergey Karjakin of Russia (2.765).

Liêm (2.727) is one of four wildcards. The three others are GMs Leinier Dominguez of Cuba (2.796), David Navara of Czech Republic (2.737) and Garry Kasparov of Russia, 54-year-old former world champion.

The prize fund is US$150,000. 

This is the Liêm’s first invitation to a GCT tournament for the world’s top chess players.

Liêm was the 2013 world blitz chess champion and the runner-up of the World Open 2017 chess tournament, which wrapped up in the US on Tuesday. 

VNS