Vietnamese grandmaster Le Quang Liem maintained both his top position and undefeated streak following a win against Salem Saleh from the UAE in their sixth match on Wednesday as part of the Prague Masters 2022, taking place in the Czech Republic.
Liem, holding the white pawn, claimed victory after 52 moves.
He managed to solve smart steps from Saleh, who won both the Asian Chess Championship and Asian blitz chess championship in 2015, to gradually take over the match.
Liem retains the top place with 4.5 points, 0.5 points higher than India’s Pentala Harikrishna in second place, after three wins and three draws at the tournament.
The Prague Masters 2022 is hosted by the Czech Republic from June 8 to 17, with one match played daily.
It consists of four groups of different levels, with the masters being the most competitive.
Liem was invited to play in the masters group and is the fourth seed in the tournament.
He is scheduled to compete against Harikrishna in the next match to take one step closer to the title.