Grand Master Le Quang Liem clinched the title with a draw against Indian International Master Satyapragyan in the final round of the fourth Kolkata Open.

Unwilling to take chances, IM Satyapragyan exchanged pieces regularly to eventually force the draw with a repetition of moves, as Liem finished with eight points.

Satyapragyan took the seventh position with seven points.

With 114 participants, 34 GMs and 27 IMs, Liem’s win was admired by chess observers.

Kumar Sankar Bagchi, organisational board member, said that this was the first time ever that an Asian Open had three GMs with an Elo rating of over 2.700. Even at the Aeroflot Open in 2009, there was only one player with an Elo rating of over 2.700.

Liem, who will be the only Vietnamese representative at the World Chess Championship’s final round next November, was the only Vietnamese player competing at this event. With an Elo rating of 2.602, Liem overcame a series of competitors in 10 games with six wins and four draws.

He beat strong GMs like Mamedyarov, Ganguly and Filippov.

With this win, Liem collected US$6,000 in prize money, while second-place Mamedyarov got $4,000 and third-place Filippov settled for $2,500.

Vietnamese chess fans also jumped for joy earlier this week when GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son won the Kuala Lumpur Open outright with 7.5 points in nine games.

VietNamNet/VNS