The Ho Chi Minh City-born top chess player Liem scored four points after five matches.
Hedefeated Ehsan Ghaem Maghami of Iran, Yangyi Yu of China and ViktorBologo of Moldova and tied with Ipatov Alexander of Turkey and Loek VanWely of the Netherlands.
Liem's teammate Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son scored three points after one win and four draws to rank 27th.
Therapid championship consists of 15 rounds and will be held in the firstthree days, followed by 21 rounds of the blitz championship.
Liemwas crowned world blitz champion at last year's competition with 20.5points and earned a fourth place finish in the rapid section.
Meanwhile, Son finished 16th and fifth in the rapid and blitz chess events, respectively.-VNA