According to the World Chess Federation (FIDE) rankings, with an Elo rating of 2,693, he was placed just behind France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Elo 2,697) and China’s Ding Liren (Elo 2,694), the latter a 3-time Chinese champion and now among world’s top three young grandmasters.

The remaining three players include Csaba Balogh (Elo 2,668) from Hungary, Wesley So (Elo 2,667) from the Philippines and George Meier (Elo 2,656) from Germany. 

They are all expected to pose significant challenges for Liem in his quest for another championship title at this year’s event due to take place in Missouri, US, from October 16-20. 

In last year’s tournament, Liem was top seed with a reasonably high Elo of 2,717 but still had to fight hard to become champion. 

Before his final match, he shared third position with George Meier on 14 points, just 1 point behind Cuba’s Leinier Dominguez. 

He then successfully defeated the Cuban after 29 moves to claim the title.