Le Quang Liem unexpectedly defeated the Indian Chess King

(Dan Tri) - Vietnam's number one chess player, Le Quang Liem, created a big surprise when he defeated Chess King Gukesh Dommaraju at the St Louis Grand Chess Tour 2025.

After an unsuccessful performance in rapid chess, Le Quang Liem made a strong comeback on the first day of blitz chess at the Grand Chess Tour 2025.

Vietnam's number one player showed impressive form when he won 6/9 maximum points, rising to the leading group with big names like Wesley So and Levon Aronian.

Le Quang Liem in a blitz chess match at the St Louis Grand Chess Tour 2025 (Photo: GCT).

The most notable highlight was the historic victory over the new Chess King Gukesh Dommaraju in the seventh game. This was the first time Quang Liem had defeated the Indian player since becoming the Chess King. In this game, Quang Liem used the Cozio defense to deal with the Spanish opening.

The two players quickly exchanged queens and entered the endgame. With the advantage of time, Quang Liem skillfully maneuvered his rooks, capturing the white pawns one by one while Gukesh made consecutive mistakes. The game ended after 57 moves, with Quang Liem winning overwhelmingly with a three-pawn advantage.

This is the second time in his career that Quang Liem has defeated a reigning Chess Champion. He defeated Magnus Carlsen at the Champions Chess Tour on April 23, 2022, but that was an online match. The victory over Gukesh in an official Elo tournament further affirms the Vietnamese player's mettle.

Known as a prodigy in standard chess, Gukesh Dommaraju has not been really stable in rapid and blitz chess. This is the "weakness" that Le Quang Liem has successfully exploited. Having won the world blitz chess championship in 2013, the Vietnamese player has proven himself to be a formidable opponent in this genre.

At the end of the first day of blitz chess, Quang Liem earned 6 points. He lost to Wesley So and tied with Abdusattorov. With a total of 13 points, Le Quang Liem has risen to the same rank as Gukesh. Levon Aronian is leading with 19 points, followed by Fabiano Caruana with 17 points.

The Grand Chess Tour (GCT), the world’s premier chess supertournament, continues with the St Louis leg. This is one of three rapid and blitz legs of this year’s tournament. The competition format includes 9 rapid games (25 minutes + 10 seconds per move) and 18 blitz games (5 minutes + 2 seconds per move), with a total prize fund of up to 175,000 USD (nearly 4.6 billion VND) and 40,000 USD (over 1 billion VND) for the champion.

Currently, Alireza Firouzja is temporarily leading the GCT overall ranking after three stages, although he has not won any stage. Meanwhile, the King of Chess Magnus Carlsen has only participated in one stage but has excellently won the championship.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/le-quang-liem-bat-ngo-danh-bai-vua-co-an-do-20250815150005801.htm