Liem draws second leg match
Updated September, 05 2011 09:18:05
HCM CITY — Vietnamese chess ace Le Quang Liem drew with Cuba's solid Bruzon Batista Lazaro in the second leg of their third round match at the World Chess Cup championship in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia yesterday GM Liem, ranked 25th in the world, had qualified without going through any tiebreak, unlike many other players. So he had a day of rest and started with white in the match against Batista, ranked 62nd in the world with an Elo of 2,682. After 34 moves, two players agreed to a draw in the first leg match on Saturday. According to chessdom.com, Batista played a good match, finding a minimal counterplay to block white's efforts. Liem played only for two results and achieved plan minimum, which is also not a bad result. Liem becomes one of three Asian players playing in the third round of 32 participants with Indian Gupta Abhijeet and Chinese Bu Xiangzhi. Meanwhile, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son of Viet Nam went out of the tournament after putting on a fighting display against the much higher ranked Peter Svidler. After drawing both their second round matches, Son held Svidler to a draw in two 30-minute rapid games, but lost 2-0 in two 10-minute games. The US$1.6 million World Chess Cup championship has this year attracted the participation of 128 players from 46 nations. — VNS
