2025 Chess World Cup earthquake: Chess King Gukesh eliminated, a chance for Le Quang Liem?

Gueksh (left) was eliminated in the third round of the 2025 Chess World Cup - Photo: Chessbase India

On the evening of November 8, the 2025 Chess World Cup witnessed major shocks, when a series of top seeds and names had to say goodbye to the tournament.

Notably, young chess king Gukesh, grandmaster Anish Giri and a series of top players unexpectedly collapsed, opening up a great opportunity for Vietnamese player Le Quang Liem to go deep in the tournament.

Chess king Gukesh continued to perform below expectations and had to accept defeat with a final score of 0.5 - 1.5 against his lesser-known opponent, Frederik Svane - a grandmaster from Germany.

Svane’s victory was not only the biggest shock of the day, but also one of the biggest surprises of the tournament this year. The elimination of the young world champion in this round made the bracket more unpredictable than ever.

Sharing the same fate with Gukesh, many other strong players were also eliminated on this tense day of competition, such as Anish Giri (ranked 7th in FIDE) who also lost with a score of 0.5 - 1.5.

Chess player Anish Giri stopped at round 3 of the 2025 Chess World Cup - Photo: Chessbase India

In addition, Nodirbek Abdusattorov - one of the bright young talents - also could not continue with a 0-2 defeat.

Previously, other famous names such as Wesley So and Hans Niemann unexpectedly stopped in the previous rounds.

The early elimination of a series of strong opponents is creating an ideal scenario for Le Quang Liem.

Currently, other potential formidable opponents such as Arjun Erigaisi or Praggnanandhaa are in the other bracket. This means that if they continue to maintain stable performance, the path to go deeper in the tournament is completely possible, even further than entering the Candidates 2026.

Fans are placing high expectations on Le Quang Liem, hoping that he will take full advantage of this advantage to break his personal record for the first time in his career and make his name in history at the 2025 Chess World Cup.

The Chess World Cup takes place every two years in a knockout format , bringing together 206 players. The tournament runs from November 1 to November 27 in Goa, India, with a total prize pool of $2 million (the champion receives $120,000).

More importantly, the 2025 World Cup will select three places to participate in the 2026 Candidates Tournament - the tournament that will decide the challenger to the chess throne.

Some of the world's top grandmasters such as defending champion Magnus Carlsen, along with Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, were absent because they had already secured or were almost certain to qualify for the Candidates.

Each match will last for a maximum of three days, consisting of two standard games. In the event of a draw, the players will play a rapid and blitz tie-break on the third day to determine the winner.

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dia-chan-world-cup-co-vua-2025-vua-co-gukesh-bi-loai-co-hoi-cho-le-quang-liem-20251108234636498.htm