HCM CITY — Grand Master Le Quang Liem's recent successes have propelled him 14 spots higher in the World Chess Federation's latest rankings released early this month.
With an Elo rating of 2694, Viet Nam's top player is now in the 40th place, the highest ranking achieved by a chess player so far. Magnus Carlsen of Norway is the world's top-ranked player with a rating of 2826.
Liem's remarkable success at the Sparkassen Chess Meet that took place in Dortmund, Germany in July.
Liem came in second in his debut at the super-tournament, which featured five world-class players – former World Chess Champion Vladimir Kramnik (World No 4), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (6), Ruslan Ponomariov (14), Peter Leko (16), and Arkadij Naiditsch (51).
Liem was the top seed at the 2010 Asian Chess championship held in the Philippines in April, where he earned a ticket to the World Chess Championships next month in Italy.
The HCM City-based grand master, who is just 19, had in March become the first Vietnamese player to enter the top 50 in world rankings when he reached 42, winning the prestigious Aeroflot Open that featured 75 grandmasters and five international masters.
He had then slipped to 55th place before the latest surge. — VNS
