Việt Nam’s No 1 chess player Lê Quang Liêm will compete in the Isle of Man (IoM) International Chess Tournament, one of the strongest open tournaments in the world.

Liêm was invited by the Professional Chess Association (PCA), considered the 14th seed of the tournament.

The tournament will be held at Villa Marina, Isle of Man, England.

It features 174 grandmasters from 35 countries and territories of the world, including 20 super grandmasters, such as Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vladimir Kramnik, Wesley So and Viswanathan Anand.

“Kings of chess” Magnus Carlsen from Norway and American – Italian Fabiano Caruana will be absent as they are attending other world tournaments, while Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan and Ding Liren from mainland China gave private reasons not to attend.

Liêm, who has just returned from a successful Olympiad in Batumi, Georgia, helped his men’s team to rank seventh, the same achievement Việt Nam’s team won in 2012.

The grandmaster from Hồ Chí Minh City scored 7.5 points after 10 rounds, with Elo 2,755. Although he won no medal, he said he was proud of his performance there.  

 “It has not been my best achievement at the Olympiad, but it did help me accumulate six more points of Elo. After the tournament, I will return to Việt Nam to take a break for a few days then head to England. IoM is world’s top open tournament and attracts almost all the top grandmasters,” Liêm said.

His best score at Olympiad helps him to return to top 30 of the world, with Elo of 2,721. Getting a high position in the tournament will again affirm his name. His best competitive performance so far is winner of Aeroflot 2010-11.

The tournament will be held from October 20 to 28, with total reward of $66,000 to the winner. — VNS