At the 2024 Chess Olympiad taking place in Budapest, Hungary, chess player Le Quang Liem impressed when he defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren. This victory helped the Vietnamese team draw 2-2 with the Chinese team.
In the match in the early morning of September 17 (Vietnam time), Le Quang Liem (Elo 2,741) played black against an opponent with an Elo coefficient of 2,763. After 62 moves, the Vietnamese chess community witnessed for the first time a victory against the reigning world champion of standard chess.
Ding Liren is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is also the highest-ranked Chinese player in history, having won the Chinese chess championship three times.
Lap Nhan is the first Chinese player to participate in the Candidates Tournament and surpass the 2,800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings.
In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2,875, he was the highest-ranked Blitz player in the world. In July 2023, Lap Nhan became the number 1 ranked rapid chess player, with a rating of 2,830.
Lap Nhan was undefeated in standard chess from August 2017 to November 2018, with 29 wins and 71 draws. This 100-game unbeaten streak was the longest in the history of top-level chess, until Magnus Carlsen surpassed it in 2019.
Le Quang Liem entered the match with a lot of pressure after in the previous 3 matches, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Elo 2,633) and Le Minh Tuan (Elo 2,564) tied, while Tran Tuan Minh (Elo 2,434) lost to Wang Yue (Vuong Nguyet, Elo 2,637).
The Vietnamese player only gained an advantage in the final stages of the game, both in terms of time and some weak moves from his opponent, before ending the match. This was the most watched game in round 6.
According to experts, a draw with the Chinese team is quite a surprising result for the Vietnamese team when the 4 opposing players have a higher average Elo (2,710 compared to 2,593).
Before drawing with the Chinese team, Le Quang Liem and his teammates had defeated both the defending champion Uzbekistan and the 11th seed Poland.
Currently, the Vietnamese men's team is ranked 2nd with 11 points (5 wins, 1 draw), behind the Indian team with 6 wins. The 2 teams China and Iran also have 11 points but have lower extra coefficients.
Today, September 17, the tournament will be on break. The 7th match on September 18 will witness the confrontation of the Top 4. While the Indian team will play the Chinese team, the Vietnamese team will play the Iranian team.
This year, the Olympiad - considered the Olympics of chess, takes place from September 10 to 23, marking 100 years of the tournament's history.
