A hat-trick as Vietnamese chess master wins maiden World Open
By Xuan Binh
Le Quang Liem won his third consecutive chess tournament at the World Open 2019 in the U.S. on Sunday.
Le Quang Liem won the World Open 2019 in the U.S. on July 7, 2019. Photo by VnExpress.
After nine matches, Liem (Elo 2,713) had 7.5 points alongside American Jeffery Xiong and the winner was decided by a blitz match between the two. Xiong had the advantage of playing white but Liem forced him to a draw after 36 points. Liem received bonus points for playing black and was declared champion.
Liem had played Xiong in the eighth match and got a draw, following which they beat other opponents to set up the tiebreak clash.
This was Liem's first World Open title. He took home prize money of $15,000 and a bonus $500 for winning the tiebreak.
The victory boosted his Elo rating to 2,726, placing him 29th in World Chess Rankings.
It was Liem’s third consecutive title this year, following the Asian Continental Chess Championship in China and the Summer Chess Classic 2019 in the U.S. in June.
The World Open 2019 was held on July 3-7 in Philadelphia, U.S., with 227 participants, 36 of them grandmasters.
Liem justified his top seeding for the tournament. He will continue to take part in other big chess competitions including the Grand Tour 2019 in Romania where he will compete with the best blitz players in the world.