Vietnam’s No 1 Grandmaster Liem (Elo 2708) who is seeded No 22 will play Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus (Elo 2577) in the first round.

His teammate Grandmaster Son (Elo 2638) will meet stronger opponent Kirill Alekseenko (Elo 2671) of the hosts. Son is seeded No 80 while Alekseenko is No 49.

Le Quang Liem and teammate Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son are Vietnamese representatives at the FIDE World Cup in Russia.

The favourites for the tournament are Ding Liren of China, world No 3, Anish Giri of the Netherlands, world No 4 and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France, world No 7.

This year's knock-out tournament has lured 128 players competing in seven rounds. In matches from round one to six, athletes will compete in two classical games while the bronze-medal and final matches on October 4 consist of four games.

If score is a draw, they will play tie-break games to identify the winner.

The finalists of the tournament will qualify for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2020. The total prize money is 1.6 million USD, with the winner walking away with 110,000 USD.

In the previous World Cup in 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian took the top position for the second time in his career.

Liem struggles to hit his stride during Hunan Chess Open

Vietnamese super grandmaster Le Quang Liem has been struggling for form at the ongoing Belt and Road China Hunan International Chess Open 2019 which has so far seen him draw four games against lower-rated opponents.

GM Son joins teammate Liem at FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss

Vietnamese Grandmaster Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son has won a slot to compete at the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss, a new tournament added to the World Championship cycle by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

National Youth Chess Championship – Vietcombank Cup: Bac Giang win 17 medals

(BGO) – The National Youth Chess Championship 2019 took place at Hanoi Quan Ngua Sports Palace from June 29 to July 10, drawing more than 1,200  young chess players from 43 provinces, cities and sectors nationwide as well as members of Vietnam Chess Federation (chess clubs and training centres).

Grandmaster Le Quang Liem wins World Open chess tournament

Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem won the World Open chess tournament which concluded in Philadelphia, the US, on July 7.

Chess master Khoi wins Asian standard title

Chess master Nguyen Anh Khoi bagged his second gold medal at the ongoing 2019 Asian Junior (Open and Girls) Chess Championship after beating Jeth Morado at the standard chess event on July 7.

Source: VNA