Vietnamese chess star Liem joins top players in Online FIDE Steinitz Memorial

Vietnam’s no. 1 chess player Le Quang Liem will be competing in the FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial, a 20-player blitz event set to take place over the weekend of May 15-17 in memory of the first official World Chess Champion, Wilhelm Steinitz.

The FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial is the first international invitational tournament with the participation of Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem since the Romania Grand Chess Tour 2019.
The FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial is the first international invitational tournament with the participation of Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem since the Romania Grand Chess Tour 2019.

The FIDE Online Steinitz Memorial consists of two 10-player tournaments, one open and one for women. Each player will play each other twice over 18 rounds of blitz matches, where the players have three minutes for all moves and a two-second increment after every move. All games are to be played on chess24.com and will be broadcast live with commentary in multiple languages.

2013 World Blitz Champion Liem will be joined by World Champion and five-time World Blitz Champion Magnus Carlsen (Norway), three-time World Blitz Champion Alexander Grischuk (Russia), Peter Svidler (Russia) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) in the Open section, together with five more players who have yet to be determined.

2018 and 2019 Women’s World Blitz Champion Kateryna Lagno (Russia) heads the women’s line-up, with former Women’s World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk (Russia), Antoaneta Stefanova (Bulgaria) and Tan Zhongyi (China), and 2018 World Blitz silver medalist Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (Iran) all in action.

The total prize fund is EUR30,000, with EUR18,000 for the Open section (EUR4,500 for 1st) and EUR12,000 for the Women’s section (EUR3,000 for 1st). One innovation is that half of the prize money is to be paid out on a game-by-game basis, with every point in the Open section worth an extra EUR100 (EUR70 in the Women’s section).

Wilhelm Steinitz was born on May 17, 1836, and became the first undisputed World Chess Champion in 1886 when he beat Johannes Zukertort (UK). Steinitz defended his world title three times against Mikhail Chigorin (1889, 1992) and Isidor Gunsberg (1891) before losing it to Emanuel Lasker (Germany) in 1894. Six years later, he passed away in the US city of New York.