Liem took advantage while playing white to finish off the Iranian talent within 34 moves, which was his third victory in the tournament, following the previous wins against German Vincent Keymer (Elo 2506, Round 6) and Russian Alexey Sarana (Elo 2655, Round 8).
The Vietnamese player currently has 6.5 points, behind Russia’s Paravyan David (Elo 2602) only on auxiliaries. If he wins his last match against David, Liem will nearly almost wrap up his campaign in the overall top-ten rankings and earn a minimum of US$11,000 in prize money.
Vietnam’s no. 2 player, Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (Elo 2638), tied with Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (India, Elo 2718) in Round 10 to rank 32nd with six points. He will stand a chance to make the top 30 overall (with a minimum of US$2,000 in prize money) by overcoming Russian Matlakov Maxim (Elo 2716) in the last round.
World no. 2 Caruana Fabiano (US, Elo 2812) is currently leading the table with 7.5 points. As the reigning Candidates champion, Fabiano has already been guaranteed a place in the 2020 Candidates Tournament. Therefore, the solitary Candidates berth from the Grand Swiss is now a race between the closest chasers, including Wang Hao (Elo 2726) and Alekseenko Kirill (Elo 2674), who are now both level on seven points.
The FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 is a 11-round Swiss tournament, bringing together 154 players, including 21 Super Grandmasters (Elo 2700+) and 110 Grandmasters (rated 2600+). A total prize fund of over US$430,000 is up for grabs, with US$70,000 for the champion. The overall winner of the Grand Swiss will qualify for the 2020 Candidates Tournament, which will be an eight-player event played in Yekaterinburg, Russia.
