Liem won the world blitz championship title in 2013 with a score of 20.5 out of a total of 30 points after surpassing strong rivals Nepomniachtchi of Russia and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.
The same year he came first in the blitz event at the Asian Continental Championship 2013.
This year has seen Liem record impressive progress in the world’s chess rankings as he climbed to 15th place in August. The championship title at the Biel Chess Festival helped him to accumulate more points to raise his Elo score to 2740.
However, in two important tournaments, the FIDE World Cup and the 19th Asian Games (ASIAD 19), the Vietnamese player did not record good results.
The world blitz chess championship is a chess tournament which is held to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held an annual joint rapid and blitz chess tournament and billed it as the world rapid and blitz chess championships.
This comes following FIDE naming the championship titles won throughout its history on its official page ahead of the world blitz chess championship which will be held in Samarkand of Uzbekistan from December 29 to December 30.
Famous Russian chess grandmaster Aleksandr Grischuk and Norwegian grandmaster Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen, who won the world blitz champions in 2012 and 2014, also featured on the list.
