On the evening of July 24, Vietnamese Chess Grandmaster Le Quang Liem defeated world No. 8 Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa at the Biel Chess Festival 2024, thereby winning the championship one round early. This is also the third consecutive time Quang Liem has won this tournament.
Le Quang Liem and Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu (India) in the decisive match (Photo: Biel Festival)
The Biel Chess Festival is a long-standing Chess tournament in Switzerland with over 50 years of organization. According to the Organizing Committee's regulations, the players will compete in 5 rapid games, 10 blitz games, 5 standard games, then select the 4 players with the highest results to participate in the final round.
In the match against No. 1 seed Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa on the evening of July 24 (local time), despite playing black, Grandmaster Le Quang Liem (ranked 17th in the world) played explosively when he excellently defeated his opponent to gain 4 more points. This victory also helped Le Quang Liem create a gap of 5.5 points compared to the second-ranked player Haik Martirosyan (Armenia) and win the championship 1 round early. This is also the 3rd consecutive time Le Quang Liem has won the Biel Chess Festival and he became the 2nd person in the 56-year history of the tournament to do this. Previously, only Maxime Vachier-Lagrave achieved this achievement in the 2013-2016 period.
With this championship, Le Quang Liem has accumulated an Elo of 2741. In the ranking next month of the world chess (FIDE), the number 1 chess player of Vietnam will increase in rank. And this player will receive a reward worth 11,250 USD from the Organizing Committee.
Before the Biel Chess Festival 2024, Le Quang Liem had not participated in major international tournaments for a long time to focus on coaching at Webster University (USA) and running the SPICE Chess Academy. However, the decision to participate in the most difficult event, the Garndmaster Triathlon (3 combined events including Rapid Chess, Blitz Chess, and Standard Chess) helped Le Quang Liem affirm his experience as well as his professional level, as well as his composure and high accuracy in his decisions.
Source: https://bvhttdl.gov.vn/le-quang-liem-vo-dich-som-festival-co-vua-biel-2024-sau-khi-ha-guc-than-dong-an-do-20240726095833884.htm
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