Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem, the world’s number three Fabiano Caruana and a Cuban grandmaster shared the fifth rank as the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz chess competition, held as part of the 2017 Grand Chess Tour, concluded on Saturday.

Liem, Caruana and Dominguez Perez Leinier all earned 16.5 points each, after nine rapid games and 18 blitz matches, during the August 14 – 19 competition involving ten top players.

The top prize of US$37,500 went to Armenia’s Aronian Levon, who scored 24.5 points in 27 games.

Liem, 26, has wowed fans at home and international supporters with his impressive performances at the U.S. competition.

He was fearless in encounters with players who stand up to 20 places above him on the world ranking, having beaten Caruana and the world’s number seven Nakamura Hikaru more than once.

What’s most memorable about his journey at the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz tournament must be his two matches, one in rapid and one in blitz chess, with Russia’s Garry Kasparov, who was considered the ‘king of chess’ during his heyday.

Liem lost to the former World Chess Champion in rapid chess on Thursday, but staged a sweet revenge in blitz chess just one day later.

Below is the final result of the tournament.

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