Quang Liem enters the leading group after three games

Vietnamese second seed Le Quang Liem (Elo 2,676) has joined Indonesian Andika Pitra (Elo 2,310) and Singaporean Zhang Zhong (Elo 2,614) to lead the ongoing HDBank International Open Chess Tournament in Ho Chi Minh City following his second and third-round victories on March 18.
 

Quang Liem (R) overcame Haridas Pascua after 52 moves in their fifth game on Wednesday.

Liem hardly broke a sweat to beat Myanmar’s Wynn Zaw Htun (Elo 2,382) in 34 moves before playing black to handle Haridas Pascua of the Philippines (Elo 2,423) after 52 moves, putting himself among the three competitors to enjoy a three-game winning streak.

Liem’s fellow and reigning champion Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son, who is seeded third with an Elo rating of 2,266, failed to build on his first-round win, suffering two prompt draws with Rolando Nolte and Kim Steven Yap, both from the Philippines on Wednesday.

Chinese top seed Li Chao (Elo 2,721) dropped his advantage beating Rolando Nolte but drawing with another Filipino player, Oliver Dimakiling on the same day. Li earned 2.5 points after three matches, half a point behind Quang Liem.

Quang Liem will play white against Zhang Zhong – Liem’s loser at the World Cup Zone 3.3 qualifying round in HCM City a few days ago. Other notable matches include Li Chao taking on Andika Pitra and Truong Son playing Singaporean Xiangyi Liu.

(Source: nhandan.org.vn)