World Chess Rankings October: Quang Liem Moves Up

On the ranking of top chess players announced by the World Chess Federation yesterday, Vietnam's number one chess player Le Quang Liem has risen to 34th place in the world with 2,712 elo.

In the October rankings, Quang Liem was awarded 10 elo and rose 11 places from 45th (elo 2,702) to 34th in the world (elo 2,712). This position was achieved thanks to the Vietnamese player's achievement of reaching the fourth round of the World Chess Cup in Norway last August.

On the ranking for the top international Super Grandmasters (with an Elo coefficient of 2,700 or higher) of 2700chess.com, Quang Liem also increased 11 places, from 45th to 34th. On the ranking for Asian players, Quang Liem is only ranked 5th after the reigning world champion Anand (India), Wang Hao, Wuang Yue, Dung Liren (all from China) and Radiabov (Azerbaijan).

From October 15 to 19, Quang Liem is expected to participate in the Spice Cup 2013 chess tournament sponsored by Webster University, where he is studying, with a prize value of 4,000 USD for the championship.

Le Quang Liem has risen to 34th place in the world with 2,712 elo. Photo: VV

Spice Cup 2013 had about 16 international Grandmasters participating, including Quang Liem and Philippine player So Wesley (elo 2,706, also studying at Webster University). It is known that before studying abroad in the US, Quang Liem had participated in Spice Cup in 2011 and 2012, when the Vietnamese player's achievements were winning the championship in 2011 and runner-up in 2012.

In the near future, Quang Liem will not attend the 27th SEA Games taking place in December in Myanmar because he is busy focusing on his semester exams at Webster University.

Meanwhile, in the October 2013 world junior rankings, two players Nguyen Thi Mai Hung and Vo Thi Kim Phung (from Bac Giang) both dropped in rank and were knocked out of the top 50. Specifically, Mai Hung dropped 14 places from 43rd (elo 2,222) to 57th in the world juniors. Mai Hung's current elo is 2,207. Meanwhile, Kim Phung also dropped 14 places from 47th (elo 2,219) to 61st in the world juniors (elo 2,197).

The main reason for this drop in ranking stems from Mai Hung and Kim Phung's unsuccessful performance at the U20 World Chess Championship held in Türkiye at the end of September. At the tournament, Mai Hung and Kim Phung were ranked 17th and 18th respectively, but after finishing 13 games, the two young Vietnamese players only achieved 29th and 41st positions respectively.

The player currently holding the highest position on the world's young female rankings is Hoang Thi Nhu Y (Bac Giang). Nhu Y is ranked 50th with an elo coefficient of 2,210. In the October female rankings, Hoang Thanh Trang, a Vietnamese-born player and also the reigning European champion, has risen to 19th in the world with a current elo of 2,495, up 2 places compared to 21st (elo 2,943) in the rankings last month.

Meanwhile, Vietnam's number one female chess player, Pham Le Thao Nguyen, is ranked 72nd with an elo rating of 2,389.