Vietnam’s top chess player Le Quang Liem came out in third place overall with five points at the 2019 Spring Chess Classic in St Louis, Missouri, USA, after brilliantly finishing off Ukrainian master Vassily Ivanchuk in the last round on March 10.


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Second seed Quang Liem only needed 35 moves to force the former world rapid champion to concede the defeat, according to Nhan Dan online newspaper. 


It was the third victory for the Vietnamese star at this year’s event. Earlier, he recorded two wins over Benjamin Bok (Netherland, Elo 2638) and Rustam Kasimdzhanov (Uzbekistan), four draws against Illya Nyzhnyk (Ukraine), Ray Robson (USA) and Aryan Tari (Norway) and Varuzhan Akobian (USA), and two losses against Jeffery Xiong (USA) and Eric Hansen (Canada).

As the third-place finisher, Liem walked away with a cash prize of 3,000 USD, half of the stake won by the champion Jeffery Xiong, who scored six points overall. Illya Nyzhnyk was named the runner-up with 4,000 in prize money, Nhan Dan reported.

The 2019 Spring Chess Classic, which took place between March 2 and 10, featured the participation of ten players with an average Elo rating of 2657, who battled it out for more than 30,000 USD in total prize money.

By taking part in the US event, Quang Liem could not attend the ongoing 2019 HDBank International Chess Tournament in Ho Chi Minh City, where he has been the three-time champion. - VNA