Vietnam’s Liem finishes second at Dubai blitz chess tournament

By Xuan Binh   April 5, 2019 | 11:50 pm PT
Vietnam’s Liem finishes second at Dubai blitz chess tournament
Le Quang Liem (R) plays Vishnu Prasanna at 2019 Dubai Open. Photo by VnExpress/Xuan Binh
With scores tied at 7.5 points after nine games, Le Quang Liem lost the title on subcategory points against Georgia’s Mchedlishvili Mikheil.

The traditional blitz event of the 2019 Dubai Open was held Friday with the participation of 91 players.

Liem (Elo 2.682), the 2013 World Blitz Championship winner, was seeded number two at this tournament. He won seven matches and lost one, and was joint leader at the end of eight games with Mikheil Mchedlishvili (Elo 2.581). They completed directly for the championship in the ninth game.

In the final match, Liem had the advantage of playing with white pieces, but the Georgian smartly tackled Liem’s attacks to force a draw, which was enough to help him won the title. It's not clear now the subcategory points were counted to decide the winner.

Mikheil won $1,000 in prize money and Liem $800.

In the regular chess tournament, after four games, Liem (Elo 2.711) is in the second-ranked group with 3.5 points alongside 10 other players.

He will play with black pieces against Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Elo 2.578) on Saturday.

Another Vietnamese player, Nguyen Anh Khoi (Elo 2481), will face Indian Chithambaram Aravind (Elo 2.602) in his fifth game.

The 2019 Dubai Open is being held from April 1-9 in Dubai. India's Raghunandan Kaumandur (Elo 2.370) and Aleksandar Indjic (Elo 2.592) are leading the tournament after winning all four games each.

 
 
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