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Gold for Le Quang Liem at World Blitz

Gold for Le Quang Liem at World Blitz

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Le Quang Liem won the gold medal at the FIDE World Rapid Championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia and took home the first prize of US $40,000. Not bad at all for two days of blitz! But it was far from easy: the players had to go through thirty gruelling rounds and in the end the Vietnamese managed to score just half a point more than three players: Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia).

The World Blitz was the second of two tournaments organized under the aegis of FIDE and held at the Ugra Chess Academy in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. It started right after the World Rapid Championship, in was fought out on June 9th and 10th at the same venue and among the same players, 60 in total, from 18 different countries.

The tournament was one big Swiss event with fifteen double rounds. This meant that each time the new pairings were known, the players would not play one, but two blitz games against each other, with both colours. Eight of these mini-matches were held on Sunday, and seven more followed on Monday.

After the first day, two players were at the top of the leader board: Le Quang Liem of Vietnam and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia. They were on 12 points out of 16 games. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukraine) was just behind with 11.5/16, and Ivan Cheparinov (Bulgaria), Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (also Vietnam!) followed, with 11/16.

After the second day, Le had collected just enough points to keep that half point lead. Vietnam's number one finished on 20.5 out of 30, ahead of three players with 20 points: Alexander Grischuk (who won the silver medal), Ruslan Ponomariov (bronze) and Ian Nepomniachtchi. The latter won silver in the Rapid tournament, but just missed out on the medals in the Blitz.

Afterwards, Ruslan Ponomariov tweeted:

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Le Quang Liem (Vietnam)

Here are some of Le's victories:

World Blitz Championship 2013 | Final standings

Place Title Name Fed. FIDE Total
1 GM Le, Quang Liem VIE 2771 20.5
2 GM Grischuk, Alexander RUS 2858 20.0
3 GM Ponomariov, Ruslan UKR 2743 20.0
4 GM Nepomniachtchi, Ian RUS 2813 20.0
5 GM Nguyen, Ngoc Truong Son VIE 2665 19.5
6 GM Mamedov, Rauf AZE 2718 19.5
7 GM Dubov, Daniil RUS 2655 18.0
8 GM Movsesian, Sergei ARM 2696 18.0
9 GM Andreikin, Dmitry RUS 2824 17.5
10 GM Tkachiev, Vladislav FRA 2657 17.0
11 GM Smirin, Ilia ISR 2650 17.0
12 GM Sargissian, Gabriel ARM 2723 17.0
13 GM Akopian, Vladimir ARM 2691 17.0
14 GM Najer, Evgeniy RUS 2633 16.5
15 GM Dreev, Aleksey RUS 2711 16.5
16 GM Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar AZE 2777 16.5
17 GM Kamsky, Gata USA 2734 16.5
18 GM Grachev, Boris RUS 2590 16.5
19 GM Safarli, Eltaj AZE 2597 16.0
20 GM Riazantsev, Alexander RUS 2606 16.0
21 GM Bologan, Viktor MDA 2650 16.0
22 GM Ponkratov, Pavel RUS 2565 16.0
23 IM Artemiev, Vladislav RUS 2584 16.0
24 GM Khairullin, Ildar RUS 2603 15.5
25 GM Khismatullin, Denis RUS 2693 15.5
26 GM Rublevsky, Sergei RUS 2637 15.5
27 GM Vitiugov, Nikita RUS 2734 15.5
28 GM Kurnosov, Igor RUS 2602 15.5
29 GM Jakovenko, Dmitry RUS 2693 15.5
30 GM Vallejo Pons, Francisco ESP 2617 15.0
31 GM Cheparinov, Ivan BUL 2678 15.0
32 GM Georgiev, Kiril BUL 2725 15.0
33 GM Gundavaa, Bayarsaikhan MGL 2561 15.0
34 GM Moiseenko, Alexander UKR 2690 15.0
35 GM Inarkiev, Ernesto RUS 2728 15.0
36 GM Guseinov, Gadir AZE 2610 14.5
37 GM Zvjaginsev, Vadim RUS 2659 14.5
38 GM Frolyanov, Dmitry RUS 2533 14.5
39 GM Bezgodov, Alexei RUS 2472 14.5
40 GM Potkin, Vladimir RUS 2654 14.5
41 GM Rakhmanov, Aleksandr RUS 2583 14.0
42 GM Kobalia, Mikhail RUS 2607 14.0
43 GM Lagno, Kateryna UKR 2504 14.0
44 GM Popov, Ivan RUS 2650 14.0
45 GM Ghaem Maghami, Ehsan IRI 2557 14.0
46 GM Vasquez Schroeder, Rodrigo CHI 2542 14.0
47 GM Cherniaev, Alexander RUS 2486 14.0
48 IM Pasiev, Rakhim RUS 2523 13.5
49 FM Gordievsky, Dmitry RUS 2584 13.5
50   Ram, S. Krishnan IND 2341 13.5
51 IM Nadanian, Ashot ARM 2428 13.5
52 GM Salem, A.R. Saleh UAE 2538 13.0
53 GM Pridorozhni, Aleksei RUS 2560 13.0
54 GM Skatchkov, Pavel RUS 2486 13.0
55 IM Potapov, Pavel RUS 2516 12.5
56 GM AL-Sayed, Mohammed QAT 2504 10.0
57 GM Kabanov, Nikolai RUS 2440 10.0
58 FM Byambaa, Zulzaga MGL 2273 8.5
59 FM Sibriaev, Aleksandr RUS 2239 6.0
60 IM Akbaev, Kazbek RUS 2475 3.0


Tournament website, games via TWIC, photos by Kirill Merkuryev & Maria Emelianova courtesy of FIDE

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