Quang Liem achieved the best result at the Grand Chess Tour

Quang Liem won nine points from rapid chess, and 11 points from blitz chess, ending the tournament with a total score equal to world runner-up Ian Nepomniachtchi. The number one player in Vietnam is only one point less than champion Fabiano Caruana, and half a point behind runner-up Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Quang Liem left the tournament with 22.500 USD in prize money, ahead of Top 10 players in the world such as Alireza Firouzja, Wesley So or Anish Giri.

In three previous Grand Chess Tour appearances, all in rapid chess formats, Quang Liem won 16,5 points at St Louis 2017, 19 points at Superbet 2019 and 17,5 points at St Louis 2021. Third prize at St Louis Louis 2023 is also the highest position Quang Liem has ever achieved, in the system of Grand Chess Tour super tournaments.

Grand Chess Tour is an annual tournament system that brings together the strongest invited players. Each year the system organizes five tournaments, including two standard chess tournaments and three lightning tournaments. Each tournament will have 10 players participating, mainly the Top 10 players in the world and a few invitations for those in the Super Grandmaster ranks. Quang Liem attended St Louis this year as a special participant, replacing Chess King Dinh Lap Nhan.

Quang Liem started well on the first day of the tournament with five points from three quick games, with two wins and one draw. But in the next two days, he did not win any games, drew four and lost two. After the rapid chess event, he ranked fourth with four other players.

On the first day of blitz chess competition, Quang Liem won 4,5 out of nine maximum points. He won against Samuel Sevian, Caruana, Firouzja and Giri, but lost to Vachier-Lagrave, So, Jeffery Xiong and Nepomniachtchi. The 32-year-old's only draw on the day came against Ray Robson, dropping him to fifth.

On the last day, Quang Liem broke through with 6,5 points, from five wins, three draws, and one loss. He defeated Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana, Xiong, Firouzja, Robson, drew So, Nepomniachtchi, Giri, only lost to Sevian.

According to the tournament format, each player will meet nine other players three times, including one quick game and two lightning games. The only player Quang Liem could not win at the tournament was Nepomniachtchi, with one draw and two losses. The three-time HDBank champion achieved his best performance against Firouzja, with two wins and one draw.

After this tournament, six of the 10 players participating in the St Louis tournament will stay in this city to continue playing the Sinquefield Cup standard chess tournament, without Quang Liem. The average Elo of the 10 players participating in the Sinquefield Cup is up to 2.754, and this is also the final tournament of this year's Grand Chess Tour.

Lightning Results St Louis

Xuan Binh