GM Liem tops HDBank tournament after five rounds
No 2 seed Le Quang Liem has returned in the title race after one win and one draw at the HDBank Cup International Open Chess’s Master category on March 14 in HCM City.
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The former world blitz chess champion beat teammate International Master (IM) Nguyen Anh Khoi, the youngest master of the category, in the fourth round before taking a draw against one of two leading Grandmaster (GM) Wang Hao of China in the next match.
GM Liem now has four points and will play GM Goganov Aleksey of Russia who is now sitting at No 5.
Wang who drops to second position will meet No 1 seed Wei Yi of China.
GM Wei ranks third, followed by country-fellow Bu Xiangzhi who beat Vietnam’s IM Tran Tuan Minh on March 14. Minh who was in top position after the third round fell to the No 8 with 3.5 points.
In the Challengers category, the Vietnamese masters set up their domination as they secured the top 11 positions in the rankings.
Nguyen Huynh Tuan Hai showed a perfect performance with all five wins to take No 1 seat. He is followed by Pham Minh Hieu and Phan Phuong Duc.
The tournament will continue until March 17 and a bonus of US$45,000 will be delivered to the winners.
