Kim Phung won the chess World Cup
Kim Phung (standard chess Elo 2,351) was attacked by Rudzinska (2,257) in the middle, but the Vietnamese representative defended and then counterattacked on the rear and won after 51 moves. This is also the first victory of a Vietnamese player in the Women's group at the Chess World Cup. Kim Phung only needs to draw the second game when holding the white piece to meet the Polish representative at 6pm today, July 31, to enter the second round to meet Harika Dronavalli (2,500).
Also in the first game, Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (2,229) held the black piece, drawing with Gulnar Mammadova (2,357). If she passes Mammadova, Mai Hung will meet Nino Batsiashvili (2,474) in the second round.
The other representative of Vietnam competing on July 30 was Le Tuan Minh (2,557) in the Open table, but he held the black piece and lost to the host Vugar Asadli (2,567). Tuan Minh was forced to win the second game if he didn't want to be eliminated early.
Vietnam also has one more representative for the 2023 chess World Cup, Le Quang Liem (2,728), but he is exempt from the first round due to the seed. Quang Liem's opponent in the second round is Peter Michalik (2,582) or Ivan Ivanisevic (2,536).
The original Vietnamese players in the World Cup were quite successful, when Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Czech, 2,642) beat Zhang Yuanchen (2,281) in the first game. Hoang Thanh Trang (Hungary, 2,402) also defeated Zineb Dina Abdi (1,858) in the Women's group, while Tran Thanh Tu (Japan, 2,420) drew with David Paravyan (2,612) in the Open group.
The 2023 Chess World Cup took place in Baku, Azerbaijan, from July 30 to August 24, with 206 players in the men's group and 103 players in the Women's group. Players in the knockout round, including the seeds that were exempted from the first round. The tournament gathered most of the players such as Magnus Carlsen (2,835), Hikaru Nakamura (2,787), Fabiano Caruana (2,782) or Ian Nepomniachtchi (2,779). The top players absent are defending world champion Dinh Lap Nhan (2,780), Alireza Firouzja (2,786) or Richard Rapport (2,752).
In each match, the player will play two standard chess games that change the color of the pieces in two days. On the third day, if they draw, they will play tie-break fast chess and then blitz chess to determine victory or defeat. The match day starts at 6pm, Hanoi time.
The World Cup is the most important individual tournament, taking place every two years. This year, the Top 3 players at the tournament will attend Candidates 2024, both in the Open and Women's groups. Candidates will choose a winner to challenge the world champion, Dinh in the Open group and Cu Van Quan in the Women's group.
