Summer Chess Classic: Le Quang Liem wins the A tournament

by Klaus Besenthal
7/1/2019 – Over the weekend at the Saint Louis Chess Club, the trio of tournaments comprising the "Summer Chess Classic" came to an end after 10 rounds of action. The most Elo-heavy 'A' tournament was won by the Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem with 6.0/10. David Howell (England) and Jeffery Xiong (USA) each scored 5½ points. The winner of the B tournament was Grigoriy Oparin (Russia, 6.5 / 10); The C tournament was won by Arturs Neiksans (Latvia, 6.5 / 10). | Photo: Crystal Fuller

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Oparin undefeated in the B group

A tournament

This Summer Classic win made it two in a row for the Vietnamese Le Quang Liem; immediately before the tournament in Saint Louis he had won the title of Asian Champion in Xingtai, China.

At the half-way point, Le was actually tied for dead last, licking his wounds from a second round loss to US #1 Junior Jeffrey Xiong. But he turned it around in a big way over the course of the second half scoring 4 points out of five games.

A critical win came in Round 9, when he defeated the English number one Gawain Jones from a difficult-to-understand middlegame situation:

 

David Howell discussing with Le Quang Liem | Photo: Austin Fuller

Final standings

 

Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com

All games

 

B tournament

The B tournament was dominated by 21-year-old Russian Grigoriy Oparin, who finished with a 1½ point edge over his two most persistent pursuers after the 10 rounds. The next best, Hovhannes Gabuzyan and Igor Kovalenko, managed just 50%.

Grigoriy Oparin | Photo: Austin Fuller

Final standings

 

All games

 

C tournament

In the C tournament, the Latvian Arturs Neiksans was the only undefeated player ending with 6½/10 and took the tournament victory.

Arturs Neiksans | Photo: Austin Fuller

Final standings

 

All games

 

Translation from German: Macauley Peterson

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Klaus Besenthal is computer scientist, has followed and still follows the chess scene avidly since 1972 and since then has also regularly played in tournaments.

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