VietNamNet Bridge - After his success at the World Chess Olympiad, Vietnam’s leading chessman Le Quang Liem will attend the SPICE Cup as the current champion.

The tournament this year will be held at the Sheraton Clayton Plaza Hotel, Clayton city, Missouri, USA, from October 16 to 20.

The total prize value is up to $10,000, including $ 4,000 for the champion and $ 2,000 for the runner-up.

Six International Grandmasters will compete at the tournament. Based on the Elo rating system published in September by FIDE, Le Quang Liem ranks third with Elo 2693, behind Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, Elo 2697) and Ding Liren (China , Elo 2494, the three-time champion of China and ranking third in the top of the best young players in the world).

The three remaining players are Csaba Balogh (Hungary, Elo 2668) - a member of the Hungarian chess team; Wesley So (Philippines, Elo 2667) – The No. 1 player of the Philippines and the first-year student in Webster University; Georg Meier (Germany, Elo 2656) - European teammate champion and a second-year student at Webster University.

Obviously, this is a huge challenge for Le Quang Liem to defend his championship though his Elo is now 2707 after his success at the recent World Chess Olympiad.

Last year, Liem was the No. 1 at the SPICE Cup, with the highest Elo of 2717. Being highly appreciated but it was very hard for to win the championship.

Before the final game, Liem ranked third with 14 points, the same with George Meier of Germany, one point less that Leiner Dominguez of Cuba. However, thanks to a reasonable strategy, Liem defeated Dominguez after 29 moves to reach the championship.

Though Liem was the champion of SPICE Cup 2011, he was not highly appreciated and his Elo lost two points.

Compiled by S. Tung