Quang Liem loses to female champion

Vietnam’s number one chess player Le Quang Liem was defeated on February 1 by China’s defending women’s chess champion Hou Yifan at the 8th round of the Gibraltar Chess Championship 2012, held in the UK.

In this game, international GM Liem, who played black, tried to tie a draw but could not counter the attacks by Hou Yifan and had to surrender after 40 moves.

Liem was once before defeated by the Chinese girl at the world junior championship in 2008.

The current victory helped Hou Yifan take the lead in the tournament with 6.5 points, while Liem dropped from 4^th to 17^th position, with only 5.5 points. After this defeat, Liem is unlikely to remain in the top 10, not to mention becoming the champion of the tournament.

Hou Yifan, age 18, has an Elo rating of 2,605 points while Liem has 2,714 points.

On the evening of February 1, Liem will compete against Slovakia’s Muzychuk Nana, who has an Elo rating of 2,580 points and will take the first move.