Although Liem remains unbeaten, with 2 points after three matches in the tournament, his chances to successfully defend his position as champion after two successive years are small.

He now ranks 10^th at only 0.5 points lower than the leading player Fabiano Caruana from Italy.

In the fourth round tonight, Liem will play Negi Parimarjan (Elo 2641) from India, who earlier drew him at the Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival in the UK.