The Vietnamese men’s team, with the presence of top player Le Quang Liem, raked in the silver medal in the rapid chess event of the 2016 Asian Nations Chess Cup, which is underway in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

Le Quang Liem (right) contributes significantly to Vietnam’s second-place finish in the Open rapid chess category.

After leading the Webster University team to overall victory at the 2016 Final Four of College Chess in New York, Liem flew to the UAE where he is joining other male teammates of the national team to compete in the rapid and blitz chess categories.

Liem played all five matches of Vietnam in the preliminary round of the rapid event, securing four wins and one loss and powering the team to the semifinal against Iran as the qualification tournament’s runner-up.

Despite overcoming Iranian opponents with a score of 3.5-0.5 thanks to a draw by Quang Liem and three wins by Truong Son, Minh Huy and Thien Hai, Vietnam failed to create any surprises against China in the final, succumbing to a 1-3 defeat and claiming the overall silver medal.

Meanwhile, the Vietnam women’s team could not book a semifinal place after finishing in just sixth place with five points (one win, three draws and one loss) in the preliminary round.

The standard chess competition concluded earlier on April 6, seeing Vietnam finish fifth in the women’s category with 22.5 points and end up in ninth position in the Open section with 20.5 points overall.

The tournament will continue today with blitz chess matches before officially wrapping up on April 8.

The 2016 Asian Nations Cup has brought together 22 men’s teams and 10 women’s team representing 20 countries from across Asia, vying for the right to represent Asia in the World Chess Team Championship.

It features three events - standard, blitz and rapid - with the Open tournament played according to a nine-round Swiss system and the women’s category played in a round robin format.

Nhan Dan