The tournament is an annual game for International Grand Masters worldwide.

Liem, 20, who plays for chess clubs in the German League, China's Chess League Division A and the French Chess League Top 16, has drawn tough opponents Russian Vladimir Kramnik, Ruslan Ponomariov, American-Japanese Hikaru Nakamura, the Netherlands's Anish Giri and host Georg Meier in a double round-robin.

Liem, who has won the Aeroflot Open twice in a row, ranked second at the tournament last year behind Ponomariov. He also jumped from 49^th to 27^th place in the world rankings after his victories in the last two months.

Liem won a silver medal at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China.