This was his first win against an Indian player since Gukesh was crowned the chess player.
After finishing 8th out of 10 in the rapid chess event, Le Quang Liem showed impressive form on the opening day of the chess match with 6 points in 9 games, along with the leading group including Wesley So, Grigoriy Oparin, Levon Aronian and Nodirbek Abdusattorov. He started with 3 consecutive wins against Leinier Dominguez, Fabiano Caruana and Sam Shaneland, then drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Oparin and Aronian.
In the 7th game, in charge of the black team, Quang Liem applied Cozio defense to deal with Gukesh's opening goal in Spain. The match quickly brought the game to a standstill with the time advantage leaning towards the Vietnamese representative. Taking advantage of the opponent's mistakes, he gradually dominated and ended the match behind 57 countries, 3 good.
In his career, this is the second time Quang Liem has won against a reigning chess chess player on the table. The first time was against Magnus Carlsen in the Champions Chess Tour 2022, but at that time they played online. He also defeated Dinh Lap Nhan at the 2024 Olympiad when the Chinese player still held the No. 1 position.
At the end of the competition day, Quang Liem had the same 13 points as Gukesh, temporarily behind Aronian (19 points) and Caruana (17 points). On August 16, the tournament will end with the remaining 9 chess pieces, in which Quang Liem will play Gukesh again.
