VietNamNet Bridge – Vietnamese chess player Le Quang Liem's win in the recent Aeroflot Open got him an invitation to the 39th Sparkassen Chess Meeting scheduled to be held in Dortmund, Germany from July 21 to 31.

Five other leading global players were also invited to the event including Russia's Vladimir Kramnik (Elo rating of 2785), Ukraine's Ruslan Ponomariov (2743), Hikaru Nakamura of the US (2774), the Netherlands' Anish Giri (2690) and Georg Meier of Germany (2669).

According to experts, this year's event is set to be full of surprises with such an array of talent attending.

Among the six invited competitors, three competed in last year's event including Kramnik, nine time winner of the event, Ruslan, who has also won the title and Liem, who took second place last year.

Of three new faces, Giri is the most eye-catching. The 16-year-old player is the youngest participant, after his surprise debut at the 2011 Tata Steel Tournament where he finished seventh with 6.5 points, upsetting world number one Magnus Carlsen along the way. Giri is expected to breathe new life into the tournament, just like Liem did last year.

The tournament features players with an average rating of 2725 through a six-player, double round-robin format.

However in this year's event the grandmasters are not allowed to offer a draw during the game. The game will be declared a draw when a win for either side is no longer possible, or in case of a three-fold repetition.

The Sparkassen Open A and B take place in Dortmund Town Hall.

VietNamNet/Viet Nam News