Liêm ranks seventh at Gibraltar Masters

Grandmaster Lê Quang Liêm. — Photo zing.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese Grandmaster (GM) Lê Quang Liêm ranked seventh at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival  二0 一 八, which concluded in England early February  二.

The HCM City-born player beat Daniil Dubov of Russia in the final  一0th match after  四 四 moves.

Earlier, No  六 seed Liêm had also defeated Andrey Esipenko of Russia in the ninth game after  六 四 moves.

With five wins and five draws, Liêm, a former world blitz chess champion, had  七. 五 points to rank seventh. He was deducted one Elo step to  二. 七 三 六 as he drew with rivals who had Elo ratings lower than him.

Seven players in the event finished with  七. 五 points. Levon Aronian of Armenia, who has an Elo rating of  二. 七 九 七, triumphed on a tie-breaker. Aronian had earlier won this event in  二00 五.

Japanese-American chess GM Hikaru Nakamura (Elo rating  二. 七 八 一) Hungarian GM Richard Rapport were the runners-up. Nakamura has won the Chess Festival four times in the past.

The Gibraltar Chess Festival is the most popular open-chess tournament in the world. The  二0 一 八 edition attracted many participants, including  一 二 players with Elo rating of  二. 七00 onwards. Liêm was one of them. — VNS