China and India have long been seen as rising superpowers on the chess scene, but the performances over the past year of rising young Vietnamese stars suggest a new Asian tiger on the prowl.

Leading the charge has been GM Le Quang Liem, 19, who is one of the world's top young players. He first came to international notice last year with two remarkable back to back performances in the chess heartland of Russia's capital, as he out-scored several of the world's top grandmasters to capture the Aeroflot Open and tying for first in the subsequent Moscow Open.

But Le Quang took it to another level - literally and figuratively - with an impressive second-place finish in the elite annual superGM event in Dortmund, Germany last year, ahead of former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, a nine-time winner of the event.

And last week in Moscow, lightening struck twice as Le Quang won this year's edition of the Aeroflot Open. This behemoth of an international open ended in a three-way tie, as front-runner Le Quang Liem (whose only loss came in the penultimate round to Ivan Cheparinov), Nikita Vitiugov and Evgeny Tomashevsky all scored 6.5/9. Gata Kamsky, the current U.S. champion and upcoming candidates match contestant, finished equal 4th-10th a half point behind the main winners.

But the young Vietnamese star (pictured above with arbiter Geurt Gijssen and TD Alexander Bach) took the title and the lion's share of the prize fund on tiebreak - and with the top honors went the lucrative qualifying spot for the Dortmund Sparkassen super-tournament in July.

We've come to an end of an era as ICC was saddened to hear this week that the Mainz Chess Classic in Germany will not be held this year, due to the global economic woes effecting the main sponsors of the annual summertime chess extravaganza.

The tournament, the brainchild of über-organizer Hans-Walter Schmitt, did much during the past decade to popularize not just rapid chess but also Chess960. It was the first major tournament on the international circuit to adopt Chess960 and even ran the Chess960 World Championship.

ICC was honored to have run in the past two major Chess960 qualifiers for the Mainz Chess Classic (one of which was won by the current holder of the Chess960 title, a certain GM Hikaru Nakamura). Many ICC members enjoyed playing in those Chess960 qualifiers for the Mainz Chess Classic, and indeed for many it was their first introduction to the popular variant of the game associated with Bobby Fischer.

In a statement posted on the Chess Tigers site (http://www.chesstigers.de/), the city of Mainz, its chess-mad Lord Mayor Jens Beutel and the Chess Tigers e.V. with its chairman Hans-Walter Schmitt thanked everyone over the years - including the long-time sponsors, players and spectators, the international journalists and the many volunteers - for all their help in making the tournament the success it was.

It is a common gripe here on ICC: members disconnecting in lost positions and refuse to resume the game, and then you have to wait weeks to be awarded what was a sure-fire win.

Over the years, many members have complained about this particular unsportsmanlike tactic of "pulling the plug" and taking all the fun out of playing on ICC - but now, enforcing the law comes JudgeBot, a new computer program that monitors every game where your opponent disconnects.

If JudgeBot determines that you are clearly winning, it will award the win to you in about 30 or 40 seconds! You will receive an ICC message and the game will appear as a win in your history. There is no need to request the win or search for days for your opponent to resume!

ICC would also like to listen to member feedback on their experience of using JudgeBot - we want you to "message JudgeBot <text>" with praise, complaints, and questions about this new system! And the verdict in its first week is that its a big winner for ICC, who yet again show they lead in community-based development for better online play for its members.

Click here for more details on JudgeBot.

ICC has also made its Newsletter service available now on an RSS feed for you to get all the latest news on ICC online activities - get it now to keep in touch with ICC!

 Subscribe to this feed