Hanoi (VNA) - VietnameseGrandmaster Le Quang Liem triumphed in the standard chess category of the 2019Asian Continental Chess Championship which concluded in China on June 15.
This was the first time the formerworld blitz chess champion won the Asian title.
Liem, who has an Elo rating of 2,694,beat Sethuraman Panayappan of India (Elo 2,613) in the final match after38 moves.
The HCM City-born player had atotal of seven points from nine matches, which proved enough for him towin the championship.
Liem brought home a cash prize of 11,000USD.
Karthikeyan Murali and SethuramanPanayappan were the runners-up with 6.5 points each.
Liem’s teammate Nguyen Ngoc TruongSon ranked 14th with 5.5 points.
On the women’s side, the nation’s bestperformer was Pham Le Thao Nguyen who achieved six points. Other competitorsincluded Hoang Thi Bao Tram who finished on 5.5 points, Vo Thi Kim Phungwith five points and Pham Bich Ngoc also with five points.
In the blitz chess event, Liem, thenumber-2 seed, brought home the silver medal with seven points. The titlewent to Nihal Sarin of India with eight points. Son ranked 18th with 5.5points.
Vietnamese player Phung won the silvermedal in the blitz chess for women with 6.5 points. Zhai Mo of China took thetitle with 7.5 points.
The tournament drew the participationof 112 chess players from 19 countries and territories.-VNA