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:

 
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1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0-0 Bc5 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.d3 Bd6 8.Nbd2 Be6 9.b3 Nd7 10.a4 a5 11.Nc4 Bxc4 12.bxc4 0-0 13.Rb1 Re8 14.c3 b6 15.Bg5 Be7 16.Be3 Bf6 17.Qc2 c5 18.g3 Nf8 19.Ne1 Qd7 20.f4 exf4 21.gxf4 Rad8 22.f5 h6 23.Rf3 Nh7 24.Bf4 Qe7 25.Ng2 Be5 26.Rbf1 Nf6 27.Kh1 Kh8 28.Rh3
28...Rd6 A (presumably well-intended) mistake: Black wants to block the white centre pawns and keeps an eye on the d4 square, but if White manages to get in e5 the black rook is in a tight spot. 28...Bxf4! 29.Nxf4 Qe5= 29.Rg1 Red8 Black continues to pursue his plan. But there was still time for 29...Bxf4! 30.Nxf4 Qe5 30.Bxe5 Qxe5 31.Ne1 Ne8 Of course g7 was also an obvious weak spot. 32.Rg4 After 32.Qg2! (which would have immobilized the e8-knight) White would have been on the winning side, but not because of an imminent mate on g7, but rather due to the activation of the central pawn mass: Qxc3 32...Kg8 33.d4 cxd4 34.Nd3 Qe7 35.e5 33.Qg3 32...Nf6 With 32...Kh7! Black would have been able to prove that the rook move to g4 was not the right plan. 33.Rg1 Ne8 34.Qc1!
The Vietnamese finds a move as good as Qg2. The possible threat is Rxh6+ and does not leave Black with much choice. 34...Qe7 35.Qf4! Now e4-e5 is possible. Qd7 36.e5 Qc6+ 37.Nf3 Rxd3 38.f6 Kg8 39.Qxh6 1–0
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WhiteEloWBlackEloBResYearECOEventRnd
Le,Q2694Jones,G27091–02019C85Summer Chess Classic-A 20199.2

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

Final standings

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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

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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

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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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