Vietnam chess ace scores important wins in Generation Cup to remain in contention

On the second day Vietnam’s top player, who has an Elo rating of 2,791, played India’s Adhiban Baskaran (Elo 2,569), the aggressive former U16 world champion.

But playing with precision and composure, Liem exploited a mistake Baskaran made to win in 66 moves.

The next game saw him draw against top Dutch player Anish Giri (2,740) in 60 moves.

Liem got back to his winning ways against the Czech Republic’s number one David Navara (2,701), beating him in just 39 moves.

In the last game he edged out young American star Hans Niemann (2,620) in 54 moves.

Earlier Niemann had played Magnus Carlsen, but the world number one surprised everyone by resigning after just two moves.

With three wins and a draw, Liem climbed from 12th to eighth in the 16-man field.

If he can keep his form over the remaining seven games, he has a great chance of finishing in the top eight and advancing to the second round.

The Generation Cup being played online from September 18 to 25 is part of the world’s leading grand series, the US$1.6-million Champion Chess Tour.

It has four days of preliminaries in which the 16 participants play each other once in rapid chess to qualify for the knockout second round.

The winner gets $150,000.