Vietnamese grandmaster to play in online US chess tournament

The lineup for the online tournament was announced on Monday, comprising 16 top players, including world number 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway and four others in the top 10.

The lineup for Aimchess US Rapid. Photo courtesy of Champion Chess Tour

It will be played from August 28 to September 5 with prize money of $100,000 on offer. On the first three days there will be a rapid chess round-robin competition, with the top eight advancing to the knockout round, where head-to-head rapid chess games are played over two days.

The event is the last chance for players to accumulate points to get a ticket to the Tour Finals, the grand finale of the Champion Chess Tour. Eight players with the highest points from the nine tour events will be joined by two invitees.

Six have already qualified.

Liem is in 10th place with 30 points below Russia’s Vladislav Artemiev at ninth (52 points) and Frane’s Maxime Vachier-Legrave at eighth (64).

The winner of Aimchess U.S. Rapid stands to gain 40 points and the runner-up, 25. The player who tops the group stage will receive 10 bonus points.

To get past Vachier-Legrave on the table, Liem will thus have to win the title, an arduous task.

But if he can maintain his 10th position, he might get an invitation to the Tour Finals, which has prize money of $300,000.

The Champion Chess Tour is a 10-month-long series that began in November 2020 with prize money of $1.5 million on offer. All games are played on the chess24.com website and broadcast on streaming site Twitch.