Le Quang Liem defeated world number 10
After four draws, in the early morning of July 26 (Vietnam time), chess player Le Quang Liem tasted victory when he defeated Ruslan Ponomariov (
Facing an opponent with a higher ranking than him (Liem is currently ranked 27th in the world), the Vietnamese player had a better game than expected and won convincingly.
Le Quang Liem in the victory over Ruslan Ponomariov - Photo by Georgios Souleidi
According to the report ofhttp://www.chessdom.com/, thanks to the advantage of holding the white pieces (going first), Liem entered the match quite confidently and continuously controlled the central area. The battle of wits lasted for 71 moves, Liem's opponent accepted to sign the defeat record. This was also one of the most exhausting games for both players, lasting more than 6 hours.
A year ago, Liem had one win and one draw with Ruslan Ponomariov at this tournament.
Thus, after the first leg, with four draws, one win, and three points, Liem temporarily ranked second, losing to the leader Wladimir Kramnik (Russia, world No. 5) by 4.5 points. Due to this loss, Ruslan Ponomariov fell to third place with 2.5 points. Following Ruslan Ponomariov were Lan Anish Giri (Netherlands) with two points, ranked fourth, and Georg Meier (Germany), Hikaru Nakamura (Japanese-American) with 1.5 points, ranked 5th and 6th.
On July 27, the tournament will play the return leg with the following pairs: Le Quang Liem - Georg Meier, Ruslan Ponomariov - Wladimir Kramnik, Hikaru Nakamura - Anish Giri.
(According to Tuoi Tre)