Liem on February 2 drew with Vitaly Kunin of Germany to earn 2.5 points and rank sixth.
The Vietnamese master who is the 16 th seed, earlier defeated twoRussian rivals on Feb. 1. In his next match, Liem will play againstYaroslav Yandemirov of the host nation.
Liem is the only Vietnamese representative at the event, which haslured 187 of the best players in the world such as Alexander Motylev ofRussia, Bu Xiangzhi of China and Viktor Bologan of Moldova./.