Quang Liem surpasses Chess King Dinh Lap Nhan in world ranking

In the final game of the Sinquefield Cup in the US on August 28, Dinh played black and lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, causing his Elo to be deducted by 5.3 points, reducing his Elo to 2,736.5. When FIDE announces the Elo in September 2024, the Chinese player will drop one place to 15th in the world.

Dinh finished the Sinquefield Cup in second-to-last place out of 10 players, winning no games, drawing seven and losing two, losing a total of 8.5 Elo. Since his victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi in the World Chess Championship final in April 2023, Dinh has lost 52 Elo, falling 12 places.

Quang Liem did not play any standard chess games in August 2024, maintaining his Elo rating of 2,741. Therefore, for the first time, he surpassed a Chess King according to Elo, rising to 14th place in the world, also the highest position of his career. However, the gap between Vietnam's number one chess player and world number one Magnus Carlsen is still quite large, 91 Elo.

Quang Liem is no longer a full-time player, as he is a coach at Webster University in the US and the director of the SPICE chess academy. He only plays standard chess once a year at the Biel Chess Festival, winning it three years in a row. In addition, the 2017 HDBank champion also participates in a number of tournaments representing Vietnam, such as last year's Asian Games and the Chess Olympiad in September 2024.

King of Chess is an unofficial title given to the world champion of standard chess. Dinh won the title after defeating Nepomniachtchi in a tie-break in the final. The Chinese player will have to defend his title against Indian challenger Gukesh Dommaraju later this year.

Players' Elo ratings are based on their results in head-to-head matches, with Carlsen having been number one in the world for more than 13 years. He also won five consecutive world chess finals, but gave up the World Chess Championship because he was no longer interested in playing standard chess.