Vietnamese star Le Quang Liem, the world number 25 with an Elo rating of 2717, finished competition at the first leg of the invitational Spice Cup in the US with his second place on the table after conceding a loss in the last match.

Le Quang Liem (R) shakes hands with Cuban Leinier Dominguez at the Spice Cup in the US on Oct.20, 2011

The favourite Liem had led the ranking table before with eight points from two wins (each for 3 points) and two draws (1 point each) before losing to Leinier Dominguez of Cuba on Thursday.

With the result, the Cuban man ranks first with 9 points, followed by Liem at 8. George Meier of Germany, Ray Robson and Yury Shulman of the US got each 6 points. Frenchman Sebastien Feller has 2 points.

The tournament draws the participation of six competitors attending the A Group, which is meant only for players of category 17 or at Elo from 2651 to 2675.

The fifth annual Spice Cup held in Texas from Oct.15-25 is the highest rated international invitational tournament held in the US, also offers competition for B Group with players at category 10 and C Group for category 8 players.

The World Chess Federation, FIDE classifies tournaments into categories according to the average rating of participants. Each category is 25 rating points wide, with the category 1 for ratings from 2251 to 2275. Category 2 is 2276 to 2300 and thus, the top category 22 is from 2776 to 2800.