How was Le Quang Liem invited to compete with 'chess king' Gukesh?

Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz 2025, the tournament Le Quang Liem is participating in, is the final rapid and blitz tournament in the Grand Chess Tour system.

The event took place in the US, gathering 10 of the world's top players, including Le Quang Liem. According to European media over the years, the Vietnamese player was invited to attend because he is one of the players with class, form and "high competitive spirit".

Additionally, Le Quang Liem resides in St Louis, making it easy for him to attend this tournament whenever the Grand Chess Tour holds a leg here.

The event has a total prize fund of 175,000 USD, the winner receives 40,000 USD and important points to compete for a place in the GCT Finals in Sao Paulo.

The competition format for each player includes 9 rapid chess games (2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw) and 18 blitz chess games (1 point for a win, 0.5 for a draw) - that is 27 games in 5 competition days.

The presence of Le Quang Liem was described by European media as "increasing the competitiveness of Asia". He has an outstanding record, maintaining an elo rating above 2700 since 2011, and made a big impression when winning the Leon Masters tournament in Spain.

In St Louis, the players participating in the tournament included Fabiano Caruana (world No. 3, FIDE 2803), Gukesh Dommaraju (6th, 2777), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (7th, 2766), Alireza Firouzja (8th, 2760), Wesley So (12th, 2745), Levon Aronian (16th, 2745) and Maxime Vachier‑Lagrave (18th, 2729).

These are the six tour players. The two who were on the tour but did not play in the tournament are Praggnanandhaa and Duda. The four invited players - including Le Quang Liem - are Leinier Dominguez, Sam Shankland and Grigoriy Oparin.

Because the competition is in a round-robin format, Quang Liem will meet all 9 opponents in turn. That means he will face "chess king" Gukesh - who is the current world chess champion.

According to the specific schedule, the tournament will start from August 12 with rapid chess format (3 games per day), from the 15th will take place the blitz chess format.

Le Quang Liem will face Gukesh in the 3rd rapid game. In the 8th rapid game, he will face Caruana.