Liem is seeded World No 5

Grandmaster Le Quang Liem is seeded No 5 in the International Chess Federation's blitz chess category in the July list.

The Vietnamese is ranked No 21 in the rapid chess event.

Liem improved his position thanks to his outstanding performance at the recent world championships in the UAE.


His teammate Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son is ranked No 29 in the rapid chess event and No 33 in the blitz chess event.

Son's girlfriend Pham Le Thao Nguyen is seeded No 45 in the women's rapid chess event.

Seventeen-year-old Tran Tuan Minh is the only Vietnamese player in the junior rapid chess event and is ranked No 55. Nguyen Thi Mai Hung is seeded No 22 in the girls' rapid chess event.

There are three Vietnamese players in the women's blitz chess event and one in the girls' blitz event.

In the standard chess event, Liem has kept his No 38 rank, despite losing two Elo points due to unexpected results at last month's Asian team championships, where Viet Nam missed their chance of reaching the top three positions.

No female player from Viet Nam has succeeded in breaking through to the world top 100 in the standard chess event.

Hung, 20, is the sole Vietnamese master in the girls' standard chess event at No 17