Quang Liem defeated by Women's World Champion in UK

Vietnamese chess star Le Quang Liem was Tuesday defeated by China’s number 1 women player Hou Yifan at the 8th round of the 2012 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival in the UK.

The Vietnamese number 1 player thus fell to the 17/150 rank from the 4th place he earned after beating the Israel rival Nabaty Tamir at the previous round.

This is an unexpected loss of Liem, who has Elo rating of 2,714 -- much higher than the 2,605 of the Women's World Champion Yifan Hou.

Inspired by her victory against the legend female player Judit Polgar of Hungary (2,710) at the 7th round, Hou Yifan, with the advantage of taking the first move, managed to beat Liem after 40 moves.

In 2008, Liem was also defeated by Hou in a game he had black at the world young chess player champions.

Liem is scheduled to take white in the encounter against Slovakia’s Muzychuk Nana (2,580) in the next round on Thursday.

Earning a total score of 5.5 points, 1 point lower than the leading player, Liem is not likely to win the tour, since even a victory in both of the last two games can only earn him a place in the top ten.

The 2011 Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival is taking place from 24 January to 2 February at the Caleta Hotel in Gibraltar.