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
Click or tap any result to open the game via Live.ChessBase.com
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
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
Translation from German: Macauley Peterson
