GM Liem crowned SPICE Cup champion for second time
Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem (Elo 2,697) was named the overall winner of the 2015 SPICE Cup Open chess tournament after drawing with former Ukrainian champion, Illya Nyzhnyk (Elo 2,628) in the last round of play on October 22 local time.
Playing black in round nine, Liem played solidly and shared points with Nyzhnyk after 17 moves, thereby wrapping up his 2015 campaign with seven points after nine matches.
Meanwhile, both Shimanov and Troff targeted a win as they faced each other in the last round, aiming to reach seven points and vie for the overall title with Liem by sub-index.
However, the clash broke even after 26 moves, forcing the two masters in second and third place with an aggregate of 6.5 points each.
The victory marked Liem’s stunning comeback to the SPICE Cup arena following his poor performances in the previous two editions. Alongside a stake of US$5,000 for the Open winner, Liem will surely gain additional elo rating points in order to fulfil his goal of resuming a place in the world’s top 30 players.
2015 SPICE Cup champion, Le Quang Liem (right) receives the trophy and prize money from Susan Polgar, a well-known Hungarian-born American chess Grandmaster.
It was Liem’s second SPICE Cup title after competing in the tournament five times, following his first victory in 2011.
Round eight concluded early on Thursday witnessing Liem climb to top spot with 6.5 points, half a point above runners-up, Aleksandr Shimanov (Elo 2,593) of Russia and Kayden Troff of the US (Elo 2,517).Playing black in round nine, Liem played solidly and shared points with Nyzhnyk after 17 moves, thereby wrapping up his 2015 campaign with seven points after nine matches.
Meanwhile, both Shimanov and Troff targeted a win as they faced each other in the last round, aiming to reach seven points and vie for the overall title with Liem by sub-index.
However, the clash broke even after 26 moves, forcing the two masters in second and third place with an aggregate of 6.5 points each.
The victory marked Liem’s stunning comeback to the SPICE Cup arena following his poor performances in the previous two editions. Alongside a stake of US$5,000 for the Open winner, Liem will surely gain additional elo rating points in order to fulfil his goal of resuming a place in the world’s top 30 players.
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