Liem, who has an Elo rating of 2739, beat American players Fabiano Caruana (Elo 2807) and Hikaru Nakamura (Elo 2792). However, he was defeated by Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine (Elo 2773), while holding black pawns.
Liem, who was the 2013 world blitz chess champion and the runner-up at the World Open 2017 chess tournament, is world No 23. Caruana is world No 3 and Nakamura is No 8.
With four points after the first three rounds, HCM City-born Liem was hoping to come out at first place, together with Levon Aronian (Elo 2799), Caruana, and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Elo 2751).
Liem will compete against Lenier Dominguez of Cuba (2803), Ivan Nepomniachtchi of Russia (2819) and Levon Aronian of Armenia (2799) in the upcoming three matches.
The tournament, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) system, has a cash prize of US$ 150,000.
This is Liem’s first invitation to a GCT tournament for the world’s top chess players.
