Quang Liem beat his Chinese opponent to win the gold medal at AIMAG 2017.

The top-ranked player clinched Vietnam's first gold medal in chess at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, with a narrow victory after seven games.

Quan Liem (center) at the medal ceremony. Photo: Doan Binh.

Despite only scoring half a point in the final game against Pouya Idani (Elo 2566), Le Quang Liem (2739) still won the gold medal because his direct opponent Lu Shanglei (2628) was unable to defeat Ganguly (2665). In the end, Quang Liem and Lu both had 5.5 points. Due to the tie in their head-to-head match, these two grandmasters had to compete for the medal based on tie-breaking criteria.

Thanks to the second Buchholz auxiliary factorThe rankings of the two players were then determined. Quang Liem was ahead of Lu by a minimum of 0.5 points (28 compared to 27.5), thus winning the eighth gold medal for the Vietnamese delegation at AIMAG 5. Lu Shanglei received the silver medal, while the bronze medal went to...Indian chess playerSasikiran (2,676).

Quang Liêm won the gold medal as expected.

In the women's category, due to a loss in the final round, Asian champion Vo Thi Kim Phung (2,349) dropped to ninth place overall. Meanwhile, Hoang Thi Bao Tram (2,408) won to finish fifth. The gold and silver medals went to the Chinese duo Tan Zhongyi (2,509) and Lei Tingjie (2,534).

After winning his first gold medal in chess, Quang Liem didn't have much time to rest. Tomorrow morning, September 25th, the only super grandmaster in Southeast Asia will compete in the men's team rapid chess event, which takes place over two days. He and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2629) are two strong contenders.

However, in rapid chess, China sent a stronger player than Lu to compete, namely Li Chao (2,745) - currently ranked 18th in the world. He participated with Wang Yue (2,699) - a player who had a poor performance, finishing only eighth in standard chess. Thus, the Chinese team is the top seed in this event. The teams compete in five rounds using the Swiss system, selecting the four teams with the best results to play in the semi-finals and compete for medals.

Besides the men's team rapid chess event, the tournament will also feature three other chess events tomorrow: the women's team rapid chess (Thao Nguyen, Thanh An), the men's U23 rapid chess (Le Tuan Minh, Anh Khoi), and the women's U23 rapid chess (Mai Hung, Van Anh).

According to VNE