VietNamNet Bridge – Quang Liem has performed very well at most prestigious chess tournaments in the world. He is the symbol and pride of Vietnamese chess. Like talents in other fields, the road to success of this super-grand master was very rocky.

 

“Secret” of Le Quang Liem – world’s top young chess player

 

Growing up by self-research

 

Many Vietnamese and foreign coaches who worked with Liem said that Liem has a very well ability of self-research. This ability did not come to Liem naturally, but through a long time of practice since Liem began playing chess.

 

Thanks to support from his Liem’s family and HCM City authorities, Liem has completely concentrated his energy in training and competing at chess events around the world.

 

Daily, Liem spends 3-4 hours in practice, sometimes up to ten hours a day. Being good at English and using chess software, Liem can learn much new knowledge on chess from the Internet.

 

Liem also spends a lot of money to buy chess books written by famous grand masters in the world during his overseas trips.

 

A chess game has three stages: opening – middle – end. The opening stage is very important. At the recent Sparkassen Chess Meeting 2011 in Dortmund, Germany, American-Japanese Hikaru Nakamura was surprised by Liem’s new form of opening and it took him a lot of time to think about it.

 

The middle stage depends on the internal force of each player. Liem is very good at feeling of the game formation. This is the most important which shows the rank of chess players. Computers cannot compare with humans at this point.

 

In the end stage, Liem often uses a specialized chess software. The interesting factor of this software is it based on huge database of the end stage of millions of chess games in the world to suggest the results.

 

The world has had software that can suggest the results of a chess games with the remaining six chessmen of both sides. However, Liem can afford to use the software with five chessmen. In a chess game, Liem can estimate in advance 7-8 moves and even 10-15 moves.

 

Besides practicing chess, Liem plays badminton and swims to relax. Surfing Internet and listening to music are also his favorite hobbies.

 

How much is his income?

 

Some local newspapers recently reported that Liem earns VND3 billion ($150,000) a year from chess but it is not accurate.

 

After the Dortmund chess meeting 2011, Liem has earned around VND800 million (nearly $40,000), including $2,000 from the fourth position at HD Bank 2011, $3,500 from the fourth position at Tata Steel B 2011, Eur16,000 from the championship of Aeroflot Open 2011, $1,500 from the second position at Capablanca 2011 and $7,000 from the second position at Dortmund 2011.

 

He earns some more from playing for China’s Qingdao, Germany’s Bremen and France’s Evry Grand Roque clubs but the total is much less than VND3 billion a year.

 

Effort to improve achievements at the world champs

 

The World Chess Cup 2011 is one of the most important tournaments for Liem this year. This is a knock-out event, with the participation of 127 players. The top three will attend the Candidates Tournament.

 

In the group of chess players with Elo 2700+, Liem is the 20th seed and he will face rivals whose Elo is much lower than Liem’s.

 

The General Department of Sports and Physical Training has decided to pay $8,000 to hire a good coach for Liem, but with only one month to prepare for the World Chess Cup, Liem has not yet found a good coach.

 

Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son are Vietnam’s great hopes at the upcoming World Chess Cup.

 

PV