Quang Liem won the second round of the Chess World Cup
The computer assessed that Quang Liem (Elo 2.740) sometimes had the advantage to win in the endgame, but he did not take advantage of the opportunity against Ivanisevic (2,530). In move 36, Black has an advantage of about -3 points, if two cars are placed in the second row. It was the only move that helped Black win, but Quang Liem made the wrong move and missed the opportunity.
Quang Liem also saw a plan to place two cars in the second row, but he did not go to Rxa2 right in country 36, but went to code d3 first. That helps the Serbian opponent promptly bring the white car back to protect f2.
Despite the draw, Quang Liem still has the advantage in the match, because he will hold the white piece in the second game, which will take place from 6pm today 3/8, Hanoi time. If he wins the second game, the world number 15 will advance to the third round against Ruslan Ponomariov (2,664) or Dmitrij Kollars (2,618). As for the second game, Quang Liem will have to tie-break with Ivanisevic on August 4. If he loses the second game, he will be eliminated, making Vietnam no longer represented at the tournament.
Previously, Le Tuan Minh, Vo Thi Kim Phung and Nguyen Thi Mai Hung all stopped in the first round. Mai Hung lost after two standard chess games. Tuan Minh and Kim Phung brought their opponents to the tie-break but both failed. Vietnam only had Quang Liem left, when he was exempted from the first round due to the seed.
Vietnamese-born players also did not achieve satisfactory results. Tran Thanh Tu (Japan) stopped in the first round against strong opponent David Paravyan. Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Czech) entered the second round but lost the first game to Aryan Tari, while Hoang Thanh Trang held the white army but was held to a draw by Divya Deshmukh in the first game of the second round.
Not only Quang Liem, many other seeds were also drawn by weaker opponents in the first game of the second round, such as Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Anish Giri or Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. But number one player Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana or Ian Nepomniachtchi all won and had a great chance of making it to the third round.
The Chess World Cup, which takes place every two years, is the largest individual tournament. This year's tournament took place in Baku city, Azerbaijan, from July 30 to August 24, with 206 players in the Open group and 103 players in the Women's group. The players compete in the knockout stage, selecting the top three players in each group to attend the Candidates. The tournament brings together most of the players, except the reigning world champion Dinh Lap Nhan or Alireza Firouzja.
