Quang Liem leads Aeroflot Open chess tournament

Grandmaster Le Quang Liem

Vietnamese grandmaster Le Quang Liem, 20, made excellent performances at the international elite chess tournament Aeroflot Open 2011 in Russia for gaining complete victories at four opening rounds.

Remarkably, the defending champion Liem with Elo rating of 2,664 beat the number 1 seed and world blitz chess champion, Gata Kamsky of the US at the fourth round on Friday.

He had beaten GM Luka Lenic of Slovenia, Deshun Xiu of China, and GM Andrey Zhigalko of Belarus in the three first rounds.

Liem is now the solo leader on the table with four points and is scheduled to meet GM Evgeny Tomashevsky of Russia in the fifth round today. He is followed by two Russian grandmasters Mikhail Kobalia and Evgeny Tomashevsky, each with 3.5 points after four rounds.

The Aeroflot Open 2011 is organized in Moscow from February 7 – 18. This year, it is open to chess players of most varied qualification, from unrated to having a very high rating and separated in A, B, and C categories.

The festival has the prize fund amounting to EUR160,000 (US$217,000).

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Vietnam eager to face Japan

Coach Trieu Quang Ha (R) and striker Quoc Phuong

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnam and tournament-favorite Japan are eager to meet one another at the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) U-19 Championships in China after both of them secured victories in the opening match day on Monday.

Vietnam, who overturned the initial score to defeat Jordan 2-1, will stage a low formation to counter-attack Japan -- who advanced six times to the regional U-19 tournaments, said Vietnamese coach Trieu Quang Ha.

“I watched the tape of Japan winning against the United Arab Emirates 2-1 and realized that they are strong with swift attacks along the two wings”, he said.

Vietnam can play a leveled game with Japan (to start at 7:30 GMT Wednesday), he added.

Vietnam will switch from 4-4-2 to 3-5-1 formation while facing Japan, with two central defenders Anh Quang and Tien Duy, according to the coach. Three midfielders Hoang Thinh, Huu Dinh and Hai Huy will cover the middle area to make up a second defensive wall.

Ha is also confident that his U-19 players have good athletic form and height to compete against the rivals.

The Vietnamese U-19 team is one of 16 out of 38 Asian national teams to pass the qualifying round in November of last year.

The Asian U-19 event is held every two years.

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Ha Long Bay vies for honours in world wonders

Ha Long Bay in Quang Ninh province, a UNESCO recognised world’s
heritage site, has jumped to second place among 28 finalists of the
online voting for the world’s new seven wonders.

The voting was launched by New Open World (NOW) and is available at http://www.vote 7.com.

The
positive result is thanks to Quang Ninh province’s efforts in boosting
information dissemination and promotion of the image of Ha Long Bay to
foreign friends.

The province has also developed
tourism linkages with other provinces nationwide, especially the
country’s five biggest tourism centres.

The Vietnam
National Administration of Tourism (VNAT) has planned a promotion
campaign and asked Quang Ninh province to publish a tourism publication
on Ha Long Bay with attached voting guidelines as well as build a game
show named “Impressive Vietnam”.

Ha Long Bay is drawing
the attention of tourists from both road and waterways, helping to
bring 5.3 million visitors to Quang Ninh in the first eight months of
the year with estimated revenue of 2.3 trillion VND./.

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Chopin's birthday celebrated in Hanoi

The Vietnam National Symphony Orchestra will celebrate Frederick
Chopin's 200th birthday at the Hanoi Opera House tonight with a
performance of the Polish composer's Concerto for Piano No 1, Opus 11 by
soloist Luu Hong Quang, 20.

The concerto for piano
was written in 1830 and first performed in Warsaw on October 11 of
that year by the composer himself during one of his numerous "farewell"
concerts.

The concerto – in three movements – is scored for solo piano with flutes, oboes and clarinets.

Quang has proved himself an exceptional young pianist with a series of international prizes.

He became a close friend of his family's piano at age five and was
tutored by his dad, accordionist and jazz expert Luu Quang Minh of
Hanoi .

His talent developed at the Vietnam
National Academy of Music in 1996-2006, and drew attention from the
music circles within his native country and beyond.

The pianist's technique and sensibilities won him a special prize at the
Asia Chopin international piano competition, Tokyo, in 2006, and a
second prize at the Valtidone international piano competition, Italy,
in 2008.

Quang accepted a full scholarship at the
Australian International Conservatorium of Music in November 2006 where
his prowess as a pianist grew strongly under the tutelage of esteemed
professor Kyunghee Lee.

He has joined various ensembles in Vietnam, Japan, Australia, Italy, and Serbia.

Chopin (1810-49), one of the great masters of Romantic music, was born
in Zelazowa Wola, a village in the Duchy of Warsaw. A renowned
child-prodigy pianist and composer, he grew up in Warsaw and
completed his musical education there.

All of
Chopin's works involve the piano. They are technically demanding but
emphasise nuance and expressive depth. He invented the musical form
known as the instrumental ballad and made major innovations to the piano
sonata, mazurka and waltz.

Japanese conductor
Tetsuji Honna will run the show which will also feature Symphony No 6,
op 74 by Tchaikovsky in the second half.

The concert will kick off at 8pm tonight and tomorrow./.

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Quang Liem jumps to 41st place in FIDE ranking

Le Quang Liem

Photo: Tuoi Tre

Vietnamese chess ace, grandmaster Le Quang Liem has made yet one more stride in his chess career as he jumped to the 41st spot on the September ranking of the world chess federation (FIDE) -- his highest ever placement.

The 19-year-old player, now with Elo ratings of 2,694, climbed up from 55th in the July ranking table after winning a silver medal at the category-20 Sparkassen Chess-Meeting tournament in Dortmund, Germany in late July.

In February this year, he had jumped to the 42nd place after winning the Aeroflot Open title in Moscow, but then slipped back down to 55th.

At the nine-day Frorencio Campomanes Memorial Cup in the Philippines that wrapped up Saturday, Liem and Zhao Jun of China shared the top prize each grabbing 7 points after nine rounds.

Each of them also won a cash prize of US$9,500 for the championship title.

“My target now is to reach the top 30 on FIDE rankings, meaning I need to earn an Elo ratings of at least 2,710,” Liem told Tuoi Tre.

“I will join the Vietnamese national team to compete at the (World Chess) Olympiad in Russia (from September 23 to October 4) and take part in the Asian Olympic Games in China in November,” he added.

Five top players on the September FIDE rankings include Magnus Carlsen of Norway with Elo ratings of 2,826; Bulgaria’s Veseling Topalov (2,803); India’s Viswanathang Anand (2,800); Armenia’s Levong Aronian (2,783); and Russia’s Vladimir Kramnik (2,780).

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