Lê Quang Liêm with his cup and prize of US$15, 000 at 2015 SPICE Cup Open. — Photo congly.com.vn

HA NOI (VNS) —Vietnamese chess grandmaster Le Quang Liem won the SPICE Cup Open, the highest rated international invitational tournament, at the Crowne Plaza in Missouri, the United States, this morning (October 23).

Number one seed Liem, with an Elo rating of 2697, tied with Illya Nyzhnyk of Ukraine (Elo 2628) in the last and ninth match of the annual tournament.

With seven points after four draws and five wins, former world blitz champion Liem won the match and walked away with the US$5,000 prize.

Aleksandr Shimanov of Russia and Troff Kayden of the hosts were the runners-up, with 6.5 points each.

Liem's Elo rating has risen to 2718.2, helping him to jump 17 slots to 33rd in the rankings released by the International Chess Federation this morning.

Liem has won the SPICE Cup for the second time. He took the lead in 2011 and was the runner-up in the same event in 2012.

The HCM City-born player has won three titles this year, including the FIDE World Chess Championships-Zone 3.3 and HD Bank Cup Open.

Liem came second at the Millionaire Chess Tournament that ended on October 13 in Las Vegas, and was awarded $50,000. — VNS