Liêm tops US chess event

Lê Quang Liêm. — Photo vietnamnet.vnHÀ NỘI — Vietnamese top chess player Lê Quang Liêm had two wins and a loss in the first day of competition at the St. Louis Rapid Blitz tournament in the United States Tuesday morning.

Liêm, who has Elo rating of  二 七 三 九, beat American players Fabiano Caruana (Elo  二 八0 七) and Hikaru Nakamura (Elo  二 七 九 二). However, he was defeated by Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine (Elo  二 七 七 三), when holding black pawns.

Liêm, who was the  二0 一 三 world blitz chess champion and the runner-up at the World Open  二0 一 七 chess tournament, is world No  二 三. Caruana is world No  三 and Nakamura is No  八.

With four points after the first three rounds, HCM City-born Liêm was tied for the first place, together with Levon Aronian (Elo  二 七 九 九), Caruana, and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Elo  二 七 五 一).

Liêm will compete against Lenier Dominguez of Cuba ( 二 八0 三), Ivan Nepomniachtchi of Russia ( 二 八 一 九) and Levon Aronian of Armenia ( 二 七 九 九) in the next three matches.

The tournament, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) system, has a prize money of US$ 一 五0,000.