Third win for Vietnamese chess ace at Oslo Esports Cup

The four-game match was nerve-racking as the two players drew after the first two games, where they alternately played white.

With carefulness, they ended the next two games with inconclusive results again. 

In order to decide the winner, they entered two extra blitz chess games — the forte of Liem, who won the World Blitz Chess Championship in 2013.

The Vietnamese sequentially defeated the Polish player, who was crowned champion at the 2021 FIDE World Cup, after 40 and 70 moves to claim the match.

The result marked Liem’s third triumph, along with two defeats, after five rounds of the Oslo Esports Cup.

It also put him at eight points, level with Jan-Krzysztof Duda from Poland and Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands.

Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is leading the ranking with 12 points, followed by Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen with nine points. 

In the sixth round, Liem will face Dutch player Anish Giri, who is currently ranked eighth in the world.

The Oslo Esports Cup, taking place from April 22 to 28, is the first major event of the grand series Champions Chess Tour, which features eight grandmasters. 

Of these, four are among the world’s top 15. 

They will face each other in a round-robin format.

A player will get US$2,500 for each point they earn and $7,500 for a win. 

The prize pool for this tournament is $210,000.

Each match is a set of four rapid chess games, lasting 15 minutes each – just 10 seconds for each move.

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