National chess grandmaster Le Quang Liem.—File photo

HA NOI (VNS)– Grandmaster (GM) Le Quang Liem jumped to third place in England's Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival's Masters division after three rounds.

Yesterday, the Vietnamese beat GM Joseph G Gallagher of Switzerland to take three points, as many as the two leaders – GM Michael Adams of England and GM Vachier-Lagrave Maxime from France.

Liem, the only representative from Viet Nam, will next play GM Ivan Salgado Lopez of Spain.

The Gibraltar Festival is a yearly event exclusively organised for hundreds of chess champions and amateurs from across the world.

This year the 11th edition, which wraps up on Sunday, highlights the 10-round Masters division.

The presence of the top 10 players – Vassily Ivanchuk, Gata Kamsky, Michael Adams, Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, David Navara, Alexei Shirov, Le Quang Liem, Nigel Short and Nikita Vitiugov – makes the tournament the strongest of the year.

The winner is rewarded with a whopping amount of 155,000 pounds (US$244,400). – VNS