Vietnam chess ace to compete in Prague Masters

The chess festival in Prague, Czech Republic will consist of four groups of different levels. The lowest is the Open and anyone can register for it. The next three levels are Futures, Challengers and Masters. Liem is invited to the Masters group, along with nine other grandmasters, including Czech-Vietnamese player Nguyen Thai Dai Van.

The average Elo rating of the 10 grandmasters is 2,693. Liem is the third seed in this tournament.

Dai Van is the number three player of Czech Republic. His parents are Vietnamese. Van has a similar style of play as Liem. This is his second time in the Masters group of the tournament. Last year, he drew all seven matches in it.

For Liem, this is his first time in the Czech Republic, and also his first standard chess tour since the Gibraltar Masters in January 2020. The lack of standard chess competitions in the last two years has kicked Liem out of FIDE standard chess rankings. His target will be to accumulate more Elo ratings to return to the ranking.

Prague Masters will take place from June 8 to 17 with one match played daily. The fixture will be announced right before the tournament.