Miracle: Le Quang Liem defeated the Chinese 'chess king', Vietnam ranked second at Olympiad
Báo Thanh niên•17/09/2024
Le Quang Liem and the Vietnamese chess team continue to make a splash in the men's team event of the 2024 World Team Chess Championship (Olympiad) taking place in Hungary.
After defeating defending champion Uzbekistan in game 4 and strong opponent Poland in game 5, early this morning (September 17), the Vietnamese chess team excellently tied with China in game 6 with a brilliant performance by Le Quang Liem when he overcame world champion Ding Liren.
Le Quang Liem (left) and Chinese chess champion Ding Liren in the highlight match of round 6 of Olympiad 2024
PHOTO: FIDE
The match between the Vietnamese chess team and the Chinese chess team was the highlight of the 6th day of competition at the Olympiad, with most of the attention focused on table 1 where Vietnam's number 1 player Le Quang Liem (elo 2,741) faced off against reigning world champion Ding Liren (elo 2,736). This match became even more heated because at table 2, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (elo 2,633) quickly drew with Wei Yi (elo 2,762), Le Tuan Minh (elo 2,564) shared points with Yu Yangyi (elo 2,703) at table 3, and Tran Tuan Minh (elo 2,434) lost to Wang Yue (elo 2,637) at table 4. This situation forced Le Quang Liem to beat Ding Liren for the Vietnamese chess team to have a final draw with the Chinese team.
Vietnam's No. 1 Chess Player Le Quang Liem excellently defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren
PHOTO: FIDE
It was not in vain that many Vietnamese fans stayed up all night to watch and cheer, Le Quang Liem showed his intelligence and high concentration. With the advantage of time in the endgame, Le Quang Liem made precise moves that made Ding Liren miss moves, lack pieces and after 62 moves and more than 5 hours of competition, the Chinese chess king had to accept defeat to Le Quang Liem.
Le Quang Liem and Ding Leren had a tense battle of wits before Vietnam's number 1 player exploded in the endgame.
PHOTO: FIDE
After winning the world standard chess individual championship, Ding Liren has been in a constant decline. Before the 2024 Olympiad, he was surpassed by Le Quang Liem on the world rankings. After losing to Le Quang Liem this time, the Chinese chess king also "burned" his elo miserably, falling to 22nd place in the world. Meanwhile, Le Quang Liem achieved the highest elo in his career of 2,749 and rose to 12th place in the world. The gap between Vietnam's No. 1 player and the world's No. 10 player Anand Viswanathan (India) is only 1 elo level. After 6 matches at the 2024 Olympiad, the Indian team took the top spot with 6 wins. The Vietnamese team, along with the Chinese and Iranian teams, had 5 wins and 1 draw, but with better side coefficients, Le Quang Liem and his teammates ranked second, while China ranked third and Iran ranked fourth.
Vietnam chess team flies high at Olympiad 2024
PHOTO: FIDE
The players had a day off before entering the 7th match on September 18. In this match, Le Quang Liem and the Vietnamese team faced the Iranian team, the 10th seed of the tournament with an average elo of 2,659.
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