On August 1, the International Chess Federation (FIDE) announced the latest rankings and grandmaster Le Quang Liem was ranked 15th in the world with an elo coefficient of 2,740.

The world ranking of 15 is the highest position in Le Quang Liem's career so far and this is also the highest ranking that a Vietnamese chess player has achieved in the FIDE rankings. Le Quang Liem's above ranking is considered historic for the Vietnamese chess community.

Last month, Le Quang Liem was ranked 21st (elo coefficient 2,728). However, to rise to this 15th position, the 32-year-old player successfully defended his championship title at the Biel Chess Festival (Switzerland) which took place last week. In the standard chess content of the tournament, Quang Liem excellently won 4 matches, drew 2 matches and lost only 1 match. In particular, the winning match in the direct confrontation with the top Chinese player and former world top 10 Yu Yangyi helped Quang Liem accumulate more elo coefficients to rise to hold the 15th position with elo coefficient 2,740.

The 32-year-old player has the opportunity to continue improving his ranking, as he is participating in the 2023 Chess World Cup taking place in Baku, Azerbaijan from July 30 to August 24. In this tournament, Quang Liem is exempted from the first round. The 32-year-old player will officially enter the tournament in the second round against Croatian opponent Ivan Ivanisevic (Elo 2,536).

The Chess World Cup takes place every two years and the top three players qualify for the 2024 Candidates. The 206 players in the men's division and 103 in the women's division compete in a single-elimination format. The men's division also features top players such as Magnus Carlsen (Elo 2,835), Hikaru Nakamura (Elo 2,787), Fabiano Caruana (Elo 2,782) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Elo 2,779).

NK