Surpassing Chinese player, Quang Liem won gold medal at AIMAG 2017

The number one player won the first gold medal for chess for Vietnam at the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, with a narrow margin after seven games.

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

With only half a point in the final game against Pouya Idani (Elo 2,566), Le Quang Liem (2,739) still won the gold medal because his direct opponent Lu Shanglei (2,628) could not beat Ganguly (2,665). In the end, Quang Liem and Lu both had 5.5 points. Due to a draw in their head-to-head match, the two grandmasters had to compete for the medal based on the additional coefficients.

Thanks to the second Buchholz coefficient, the rankings of the two new players were decided. Quang Liem beat Lu by a minimum of 0.5 points (28 compared to 27.5), thereby winning the eighth gold medal for the Vietnamese delegation at AIMAG 5. Lu Shanglei received the silver medal, and the bronze medal went toIndian playerSasikiran (2,676).

Quang Liem won the gold medal as expected.

In the women's category, due to losing the last game, 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 did not have much time to rest. Tomorrow morning, September 25, the only super grandmaster of Southeast Asia will compete in the men's rapid chess team event, which will take place over two days. He and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2,629) are two strong candidates.

However, in rapid chess, China sent a stronger player than Lu, Li Chao (2,745) - currently ranked 18th in the world. He joined Wang Yue (2,699) - a player who had just finished eighth in standard chess. Thus, the Chinese team was the number one seed in this event. The teams played five rounds of Swiss system, with the four best teams playing in the semi-finals and the medal match.

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

According to VNE