Viet Nam News
HA NOI — International Master (IM) Le Tuan Minh made a big bang at the HDBank International Chess Open Tournament’s sixth-round match of the masters pool in Ha Noi yesterday.
The 22-year-old master (Elo 2,489) defeated Grandmaster (GM) Gordievsky Dmitry of Russia (Elo 2,630) to replace his rival at the top position.
Hanoian Minh, who is seeded No. 22, was considered an underdog compared with No 5 seed Dmitry, as his elo rating was nearly 200 points lower than the Russian, who won all his games ahead of their meet.
However, Minh took full advantage of having the white pieces and played carefully. He forced Dmitry to surrender after 54 moves.
Minh has 5.5 points after six matches and is one of the three players who have not lost yet. Two others are No 2 seed GM Wang Hao of China and No 4 seed GM Mareco Sandro of Argentina.
In the next match, Minh will play Wang.
Tournament No 1 and defending champion Le Quang Liem was unexpectedly tied in a draw for the third time yesterday by Indian FIDE Master Erigaisi Arjun, who is the No 30 seed.
With 4.5 points, Liem ranks seventh and will face Russian GM Ivan Rozum today.
Former champion Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son joined the top 10 after beating teammate IM Nguyen Van Huy in the sixth game.
GM Son has 4.5 points and is placed sixth. His next rival will be IM Nguyen Anh Khoi, who is at No 11 currently.
In the challengers pool, Ocido Michael of the Philippines maintained the lead with 5.5 points. Vietnamese FM Vuong Trung Hieu and Nguyen Dinh Trung are second and third, respectively. — VNS