Le Quang Liem is a Chess Grandmaster from Vietnam with Elo ratings exceeding 2600 from FIDE, making him one of the best Vietnamese chess players of all time.
Full Name: Le Quang Liem
Title: Grandmaster (2006)
International Master (2006)
FIDE Master (2003)
Place of birth: Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
Born: March 13, 1991
Federation: Vietnam
Ratings
World ranking: 21
Rapid: 2661
Blitz: 2642
Classical: 2728
Profiles
Biography
Le Quang Liem was born on March 13, 1991, in the City of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam. He is the highest-rated chess player in Vietnam and the reigning Asian Victor. Quang has a FIDE rating of 2728 and a Peak rating of 2739 as of August 2017. In 2012, Quang earned a four-year scholarship to study at Webster University where he graduated in 2017 with a Bachelor of Science degree in Finance and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Management. Liem competed in Board one for the National Tournament Chess Squad at the University clinching the President’s Cup while a student for 4 years.
The Beginning
Liem’s chess career began on a top level and progressed to be a successful one. To begin with, Quang won a gold medal at the Under-12 Asian Youth Chess Tournaments in 2003 played in Calicut, India. The victory earned him the FIDE Master title. The following year, Quang emerged victorious in the U14 category of the Asian Youth Chess Championship. In 2005, Quang clinched the U14 World Youth Chess Tournament in Belfort France.
In 2008, Liem bagged the first Dragon Capital Vietnam chess Open scoring 7 points out of 9. During the 2009 4th Edition of the Kolkata Open Chess Tournament, Liem competed with the other 13 top-ranked players but managed to win the trophy.
At the Tata Steel Asian Team Chess Championship held in India, Liem together with the Vietnamese squad emerged silver medalists with an individual performance of +4=1-1. Liem achieved an individual performance of +5=4 in the Moscow Open tournament in 2010 tying for first to fourth place with Ernesto Inarkiev, Evgeny Bareev, and Konstantin Chernyshov.
Soon after the closure of the Moscow Open, Liem triumphed in the 9th Aeroflot Open in the same station, scoring 7 points out of 9 enabling him to earn an invite to the Dortmund Sparkassen Chess Meeting.
In addition, Liem competed in the first Campomanes Memorial Cup Open from August 28th, 2010 to September 3rd, scoring 7 points out of 9, hence being a runner-up behind Zhao Jun from China. Later, in September, Liem together with the Vietnamese squad competed in the 39th World Team Chess Tournament scoring +2=7-2 while competing on board one. Between February 7th-18th, 2011, Liem competed in the Aeroflot Open and successfully defended his title with a score of 6.5 out of 9, sharing the top place with Evgeny Tomashevsky and Nikita Vitiugov.
In May that year, Liem received an invitation to participate with the Elite squad at the Capablanca Memorial tournament. The tournament included defending champion (Vassily Ivanchuk), Latin America’s best player (Leinier Dominguez), Czech Republican best player (David Navara), Cuban player (Lazaro Bruzon), and Russian player (Dmitry Andreikin). Liem came second on a tiebreak to Ivanchuk with a score of 6.5 out of 10.
Furthermore, in 2012, Liem came second in the Spice Cup which was the top-rated International Invitational Round-Robin Championship in the United States records- FIDE Group 18. In March 2013, Liem played in the HD Bank Cup Open, a top-rated International Open Championship in Vietnam. Still, in 2013, he competed in the Asian Continental Championships played in the Philippines, where he came fourth place, clinched the blitz Tournament, came fourth in the World Rapid Chess Tournament staged in Russia, and clinched the World Blitz Chess Tournament, becoming the 1st ever Vietnam player to earn the World victor title after attaining an outstanding score of 20.5/30.
Moreover, in June 2014, Liem participated in the World Rapid and Blitz Tournaments held in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates as the reigning victor in Blitz. Liem was trounced in the Blitz Tournament by Magnus Carlsen who came first place.
Achievements
- Placed 7th at the HDBank tournament scoring 7/9 in 2017
- Runner-up in the 2017 World Open with a score of 7/9
- Won the gold medal in 2017 5th Asian Indoor and Martial Art Tournament
- Runner-up in the 2018 2nd Danzhou Super-Grandmaster Tournament where all the participants had an Elo rating of over 2700.
Emerged victorious in the 2019 Asian Continental Tournament held in Xingtai, China, the Summer Classic A tournament held in St. Louis U.S, and the World Open in Philadelphia U.S. In 2022, Liem defeated world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in the Oslo Esports Cup but came second place behind Jorden van Foreest. In July 2022, Liem clinched the Biel Chess Festival scoring 35.5 points.
Did you enjoy reading about Le Quang Liem? If you did, you might be interesting in reading other player profiles such as Hikaru Nakamura, Andrew Tang, and Rey Enigma.
Sources
- https://vnexpress.net/quang-liem-lai-roi-tu-do-o-co-chop-4392464.html
- http://tuoitrenews.vn/sports/1352/vietnam-accomplishes-7th-rank-at-chess-olympiad
- http://www.vietnamchess.vn/index.php/en/tournament-news/191-international/continential-events/asian-youth/510-asianyouth-ch2004
- http://chess-results.com/tnr24974.aspx?lan=1
- http://chess-results.com/tnr28559.aspx?art=20&lan=1&m=-1&wi=1000&snr=2
- http://www.chess.co.uk/twic/chessnews/events/sparkassen-chess-meeting-dortmund-2010
- http://chess-results.com/tnr37569.aspx?art=1&rd=9&lan=1&turdet=YES&m=-1&wi=1000
- https://websterjournal.com/2021/04/21/grandmaster-and-former-student-liem-quang-le-to-be-next-chess-coach/
- http://dubai2014wrb.com/en/playerbio/20