Vietnamese grandmaster graduated from American university

Grand master Le Quang Liem holding the flag of Vietnam at the inauguration ceremony.

Le Quang Liem carried the flag of his home country Vietnam at the university’s inauguration ceremony on May 13 (local time). He also received an honour from the Departments of Business and Management, and a recognition award from the Susan Polgar Institute for Chess Excellence Programme (SPICE) for his substantial contributions to SPICE in the 2013-2017 period.
Vietnamese grandmaster received a full scholarship for four years, valued at approximately US$35,000 per year, and was enrolled at the the university in 2013. Earlier, he was a student of Saigon University.
After graduating, he will participate in the World Open from June 29 to July 7 in Philadelphia, the US, World Cup in September in early September in Batumi, Georgia and the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games in Turkmenistan at the end of September.
Le Quang Liem was born in 1991 in Ho Chi Minh City and learned chess at the age of seven. He was the Under-14 World Youth Chess Champion in July 2005 and earned his Grandmaster title in early July 2006.
The top Vietnamese player has won a number of prestigious prizes, including the blitz championship title at the 2013 World Blitz and the Rapid Chess Championships in the same year, he has also claimed the overall championship title three times at the HDBank International Open Chess Tournaments in 2013, 2015 and 2017. He is currently the number-one ranked player in Vietnam.
In particular, his 8/10 score on board one at the 2012 Chess Olympiad anchored the Vietnamese men's team to No. 7 in the final standing, the highest ever for Vietnam. Vietnam entered the Olympiad ranked No. 27. As of the January 2012 FIDE rankings, he was the 29th ranked active player in the world. He is currently the number-one ranked player in Vietnam.