Vietnamese chess star Le Quang Liem marked an impressive victory against the legendary Garry Kasparov in a blitz chess match on Friday at the ongoing 2017 Grand Chess Tour in the U.S.

The Vietnamese grandmaster and the Russian former World Chess Champion are among ten contenders at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz chess competition running from August 14 to 19 as part of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour.

The round robin competition involves three rounds of rapid chess each day from August 14 to 16, and nine rounds of blitz chess each day on August 17 and 18 (local time).

Liem and Kasparov’s first encounter was at a rapid match on Thursday, when Liem, 26, made a decisive mistake that forced his concession after the 40th move.

The two met each other again during the blitz game on Friday, with Liem carrying high hopes from fans at home that he would extract his revenge on Kasparov, given his forte in blitz chess.

The younger contender did not let fans down. With constant pressure on the 54-year-old former world champion, Liem was able to keep Kasparov from forcing a draw. He emerged victorious after the 31st move.

The victory was considered the game of the day – a nice addition to Liem’s new title as the first Vietnamese player to defeat the ‘king of chess.’

Kasparov, with a current Elo rating of 2812, secured him the top post on the FIDE’s rankings for 225 consecutive weeks out 228 weeks of his career, between 1986 and 2005.

Liem, is currently ranked 23rd on the FIDE’s Top 100 Players list from August 2017, has an Elo rating of 2739, and is the 2013 world champion of blitz chess.

The Vietnamese grandmaster has been exhibiting outstanding form at the U.S. tournament, having beaten the world’s number three Caruana Fabiano and world’s number seven Nakamura Hikaru in the rapid chess competition earlier this week. Liem met Fabiano again in the blitz round on Thursday and beat his U.S. enemy for the second time.

The last nine blitz matches are scheduled to take place on early Saturday (Vietnam time) before the event wraps up.

The Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz is one of six chess tournaments held throughout the year as part of the Grand Chess Tour.

The winner at the end of six days of ten-player competition in St Louis takes home a US$37,500 purse.

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