Vietnamese ace to play world chess legend in Sweden

The tournament, set to take place in Malmo City in southern Sweden from April 24-30, will feature an 8-player lineup with Elo ratings above 2,500.

The Vietnamese GM (Elo 2,709) will play against Jorden Van Foreest (Elo 2,701) from the Netherlands, David Navara (2697) from the Czech Republic, Nils Grandelius (2670) from Sweden, Alexei Shirov (2662) from Spain, Nihal Sarin (2620) from India, Anatoly Karpov (2617) from Russia and Harika Dronavalli (2515) from India.

Russian chess grandmaster and former world champion Anatoly Karpov (L) takes part in simultaneous chess games with Hanry Arauz, 6, at the presidential palace in La Paz, June 23, 2010. Photo by Reuters/David Mercado.

According to the tournament format, players will play other in a single round-robin format with classical time control, which may see a game.

This will also mark the first time that the 29-year-old Vietnamese player plays against the former world champion.

Liem is unlikely to be the center of attention despite entering the tournament as the number one seed. Instead, all eyes will be on Karpov, the legendary chess player who was the undisputed world champion from 1975 to 1985.

Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son is the only local player who has had a chance to play against Karpov. Son won the game after 74 moves at the 2010 Cap d'Agde rapid chess tournament.