Liem, who is world No 26 with an Elo rating of 2.726, had an important win against Dvirnyy Danyyil of Italy, who has an Elo rating of 2.534.

Earlier, Liem had two wins and five draws, but as he drew with players in the tournament with Elo ratings lower than him, he was lowered by 10.8 steps of Elo and fell down to 45th place in the standings.

So, entering this game, he was determined to seek a win to improve his rankings and raise his Elo, although he held black pawn.

The HCM City-born player dominated the game and beat his Italian rival only after 27 moves.

This win helped Liem gain 5.5 points after eight matches to rank 26th in the standing.

Nakamura Hikaru of the US tops the rankings with 6.5 points.

The Gibraltar Chess Festival saw the participation of 12 players, with an Elo rating of 2.700 onwards, including No 6 seed Liem.-VNA