Few people remember that the best chess player in Vietnam's history belongs to the same generation as Carlsen, Nepo, Karjakin, MVL and several other brilliant players. Unlike them, Le Quang Liem never seriously competed for the World Championship, though he has had a brilliant career and even held the title of World Champion – albeit in blitz!
Le was born on March 13, 1991 in Ho Chi Minh City and was introduced to chess at a very young age. In 2003 he played in the Asian Youth Championship for the first time and immediately won the Under-12 section. A year later he triumphed in the Under-14 tournament and narrowly missed out on the gold in the Under-16 category, losing in a tie-break. In 2005 Liem won the World Youth Championship, competing against the future elite of modern chess. By 2008 he had become the Vietnamese champion.
The turning point for Le Quang Liem came in 2010. He first won major tournaments like the Moscow Open (7/9) and Aeroflot Open (7/9), received an invitation to Dortmund, where he placed second behind Kramnik (5.5/10) and then shared victory in Manila (7/9). A year later he repeated this unique "cycle": another victory at Aeroflot Open (6.5/9), success in Havana (6.5/10) where he shared the win with Ivanchuk, and a second appearance in Dortmund. By mid-2011, his rating had surpassed 2700 for the first time, placing the 20-year-old Vietnamese player at 27th in the world rankings and 1st among juniors.
At the end of 2012 he finished second in the SPICE Cup (5/9), after which he immersed himself in studies at Webster University (finance, management). Over the next four years Le Quang Liem rarely competed, but in 2013, within just a week, he won the Asian Blitz Championship (8.5/9), placed fourth in the World Rapid Championship (10/15) and claimed victory in blitz (20.5/30)! In this marathon the Vietnamese proved slightly more resilient than Grischuk and Ponomariov. A year later he confirmed his blitz prowess by finishing fourth (14/21), just one point behind Carlsen.
Starting in 2017 Le Quang Liem returned to active play and delivered a series of strong performances. Even in tournaments featuring the world's top players, he consistently finished "in the black," maintaining a rating of 2720+ and a place in the top 30. In 2019 he became the Asian Champion, won the St. Louis Summer Classic and the World Open in Philadelphia (his collection of major open tournament victories lacks only the NY Open). One area where he struggled was in the World Cups where he has never advanced beyond the Round of 16, being eliminated by Svidler (2013) and Aronian (2019).
In 2021 Le Quang Liem took over as head of the chess department at Webster University, succeeding Susan Polgar. Since then, he has played frequently and successfully online, especially in the Champions Chess Tour, where he regularly reaches the final stages of tournaments. Offline, he only participates in the "triathlon" in Biel, where he has won three years in a row (2022-2024).
