Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem has slipped to the 48th place in the latest world rankings in January, with an Elo rating of 2,703, according to the World Chess Federation.

In first place is Magnus Carlsen of Norway with an Elo rating of 2,872, while Levon Aronian of Armenia, with an Elo rating of 2,812, and Hikaru Nakamura of the United States are placed second and third, respectively.

Liem is currently No 1 in Vietnam and No 7 in Asia, behind Viswanathan Anand (2,773) and Pendyala Harikrishna (2,706) of India; Wang Hao (2,734), Wang Yue (2,717) and Ding Liren (2,717) of China, and Wesley So (2,719) of the Philippines.

In girls' rankings, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung of Vietnam has moved up to the 27th rank with an Elo rating of 2,248, an increase of 17 grades over last month.

In first, second and third positions are Hou Yifan (2,629), Guo Qi (2,450), both from China, and Aleksandra Goryachkina (2,419) of Russia, respectively.

In country rankings, Vietnam ranks 41st with an average Elo rating of 2,500, while Russia (2,743), Ukraine (2,702) and China (2,673) take the top three positions, respectively.-VNA