The Vietnamese Super Grandmaster tied with Wesley So of the Philippines and scored 2.5 points after five rounds. The result put Liem in third place, tied with Chinese player Liren Ding, while So, with three more points, held onto the top spot.
In other matches, France's Maxime Vachier Lagrave jumped to the top of the ranks after beating Georg Meier of Germany while Ding scored a win over Csaba Balogh of Hungary.
In the next round, Liem will play Meier. That round is part of the second half of the tournament, which will wrap up on Friday.
