Liem Quang Le

Grandmaster Liem Le is the standard-bearer for Vietnamese chess. Introduced to the game at a young age, Le immediately showed great promise, winning the Asian Youth Championship in the under 12 and under 14 tournaments. He gained worldwide attention when he won the under 14 section of the World Youth Championship in 2005.

His big breakthrough occurred in 2010 when he won the Moscow and Aeroflot Opens earning an invitation to Dortmund, where he placed second behind Vladimir Kramnik. The following year his rating surpassed 2700 for the first time, placing the 20-year-old Vietnamese player at 27th in the world rankings and first among juniors.

Many elite players would have double downed at this point and concentrated fully on chess, but not Liem who chose to attend Webster University. There he captained the chess team while earning two bachelor’s degrees, graduating summa cum laude in 2017 with a B.S. in Finance and a B.A. in Management. Since June 2021, he has been the Director of SPICE and the Head Coach of Webster University Chess Team.

Rated over 2700 since 2011, Liem has represented Vietnam in every Olympiad since 2006. His best individual results include winning the World Blitz Championship in 2013 and taking first at Biel in 2022, 2023 and 2024. Liem’s peak rating is 2741 (August 2024) and his peak world ranking is 14 (September 2024).