“Secret” of Le Quang Liem – world’s top young chess player
VietNamNet Bridge – Being the champion of the Aeroflot chess competition for two consecutive years, ranking the 27th in the world, international grand master Le Quang Liem is believed to earn VND3 billion ($150,000) a year.
After his outstanding performance at the world chess Olympiad 2006 in Italy, where Liem defeated five international grandmasters and tied with three others, Liem was exceptionally granted the international grandmaster title. In Vietnam, Liem, 20, is called the “bounty hunting king”.
Liem is invited to many most prestigious chess competitions in the world. It is said that Liem earns around VND3 billion from these events a year.
It is estimated that last year, the young chess player earned more than VND1 billion ($50,000) from the Aeroflot 2010 championship (Eur21,000), $8,000 from the bronze medal of the Open Moscow tournament, Eur7,000 from the Dortmund Chess Meeting, $9,500 from the championship of the Florencio Campomanes tournament and $4,000 from sponsor Phuong Trang company for the Vietnamese national championship.
This year, Liem’s earnings will not be less than that of last year because he won the champion of Aeroflot 2011, ranked fourth at the Tata Steel tournament, second at the Dortmund Chess Meeting, the Florencio Campomanes tournament, Capbablanca tournament and from playing for chess clubs in France and China.
Secretary General of the Vietnam Chess Federation Dang Tat Thang says: “With such sources of income, I think Liem earns at least VND3 billion dong a year in the last two years.”
Liem tells a local newspaper that his income is not that high. “Most of the tournaments I attended are inviting events, which do not have a bonus. The organizing board only pays participation fees. At the recent Dortmund Chess Meeting, the organizing board negotiated with players about the participation fees. I only received around $20,000 from the Aeroflot championship, plus $4,000 for the fourth place of the Tata Steel tournament in the Netherlands,” Liem explains.
Liem says he does not spend that bonus. He gave the money to his parents as savings for the future.
Brief biography
Name: Le Quang Liem
Birth place: HCM City
Liem is now a student of the Finance and Banking Faculty, Saigon University.
Achievements in chess playing:
– Champion of the Aeroflot tournaments in 2010, 2011. Liem is the only chess player worldwide who is the champion for two consecutive years.
– The second player at the Dortmund Chess Meeting in 2010, 2011.
– Champion of the 4th Open Kolkata competition.
– Gold medal of the Asian Chess Championship 2006 for U-16 players.
– Champion of the World Chess Championship 2005 for U-14 players.
– Liem also won some Southeast Asian gold medals.
In the current rankings of the World Chess Federation (FIDE), Liem is the Vietnamese player with the highest Elo and the world’s top young chess player.
Source: http://english.vietnamnet.vn
He’s good.
Isn’t there anything else to talk about other than how much money he made?? Who cares about that stuff!
that’s incredible he finds time for university