Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son defeated Le Quang Liem

Truong Son won all three games in the match, including some spectacular sacrifices. In the first game, which was balanced in the endgame, the second Vietnamese player decided to abandon his bishop to focus on promoting his pawn. Quang Liem did not anticipate this move from his opponent, so he fell into a losing position. Truong Son ended the game on move 42 with a queen sacrifice, because he would promote his new queen on the next move.

Le Quang Liem (left) and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (right)

The second game tested another element of the two top Vietnamese players, which was the knight endgame technique. Both sides quickly exchanged pieces to bring the game to a single knight endgame, with a balanced pawn. Both sides made a few mistakes due to time constraints, but in the end Truong Son managed his knight more effectively to capture Quang Liem's ​​pawn and promote the queen first, taking a 2-0 lead.

Quang Liem had to win the third game, so he chose a strange opening. This helped Truong Son gain an early advantage, then capture his opponent's pawns one by one. Vietnam's number one player conceded on move 63, because he could not avoid checkmate in the next move.

The 3-0 victory helped Truong Son advance to the winners' bracket semi-finals, meaning he would enter the Top 8 of the tournament, and meet Grandmaster (GM) Grigoriy Oparin in the next match. Meanwhile, Quang Liem had to go down to the second round of the losers' bracket to meet GM Georg Meier to compete for a place in the Top 8.

The remaining representative of Vietnam at the tournament, Le Tuan Minh, also entered the second round of the loser bracket after defeating GM Vugar Rasulov 1.5-0.5. Tuan Minh needs to beat GM David Anton if he wants to enter the Top 8.

Quang Liem is a Super Grandmaster, an unofficial title given to players with an Elo rating of 2,700 or higher. Truong Son and Tuan Minh are Grandmasters - the highest title awarded by FIDE to players. These are the three top chess players in Vietnam today.

The main round of the ChessKid Cup takes place from May 22 to May 26, the second tournament in the Champions Chess Tour 2023 system, after Airthings Masters and Chessable Masters. All three Vietnamese players passed the qualifying round, but were not in the Top 8 so they played in the second place.

The second division consists of 16 players playing rapid chess in a double elimination format, with a prize fund of 71,500 USD. Participants will receive a minimum of 3,000 USD in prize money. Players who lose two games will be eliminated, and the winners of each division will not lose more than one game. In addition to Quang Liem and Andreikin, the second division also includes Super Grandmasters such as Pavel Eljanov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov or Vladimir Fedoseev.

According to VnExpress