Grandmaster Le Quang Liem, Vietnam’s best chess player, retained his Aeroflot Open title Wednesday drawing his final match with Azerbaijani Rauf Mamedov in Moscow.

Liem, ranked 79th with an elo of 2664, staved off a determined attack by the 86th ranked Mamedov (elo 2660) who was playing with white pieces.

With some very smart moves Liem, the only Vietnamese to enter the world top 100, had more pieces on the board than Mamedov as the game came to an end, forcing the latter to play more defensively and settle for a draw.

The draw gave Liem 6.5 points from nine games. He was able to retain the championship because Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov, who also had 6 points before his final match, lost to 33rd-ranked Russian Nikita Vitiugov (elo 2709).

Two other competitors immediately behind Liem and Ivan, Russian Denis Khismatullin and Israeli Maxim Rodshtein, who had 5.5 points each before the final game, both scored draws, allowing the Vietnamese defending champion to retain the title.

Liem won a cash prize of US$20,000 and became the first contestant to win two Aeroflot Open titles after the tournament began in 2002. He also won a berth at the 2011 Super Grandmaster tournament in Dortmund, Germany in July.