Liêm loses to former world chess champion

Lê Quang Liêm (right). — Photo vnecdn.vn

HÀ NỘI — Vietnamese top chess player Lê Quang Liêm lost to legendary chess player Russian-Croatian Garry Kasparov in the rapid category at the ongoing St. Louis Rapid Blitz tournament in the United States on August  一 六.

Kasparov, former world chess champion and among the best players of the game, has come out of retirement and returned to competitive chess.

Fifty four-year-old Kasparov, who has Elo rating of  二 八 一 二, beat Liêm (Elo  二 七 三 九) after  四 一 moves on the third day of competition.

Earlier, Liêm, world No.  二 三, tied with world No.  一0 Viswanathan Anand of India after  四 三 moves.

It is the first time in this tournament that Liêm couldn’t win although he held the white pawns.

In the next match, he lost to David Navara of Czech Republic, world No.  二 六 with Elo rating of  二 七 三 七, after  六 八 moves.

With two losses and one draw, Liêm dropped to sixth place out of  一0 players, with four points.

Levon Aronian of Armenia, world No.  五, topped the event with six points.

The tournament’s total prize money is US$ 一 五0,000. — VNS