Le Quang Liem missed a historic opportunity

lê quang liêm - Ảnh 1. — Le Quang Liem (left) lost to Donchenko - Photo: FIDE

Surprises continued to appear at this year's Chess World Cup, when the strongest players such as No. 1 seed Gukesh Dommaraju, No. 3 seed Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, No. 4 seed Anish Giri... were continuously eliminated early.

Die and come back to life many times

The defeat of the strongest players has lit a flame of hope for Le Quang Liem - the 13th seed of the tournament.

According to the rules, the top 3 of the Chess World Cup will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2026 - a tournament that includes the 8 strongest players (except the chess king) to select participants in the world chess final.

Maintaining a stable performance since the beginning of the tournament, Le Quang Liem has entered the round of 16, which is the round of 16 strongest players. His opponent in this round is Donchenko - who has an Elo of 2641 and is ranked 82nd in the world. Donchenko is far behind Le Quang Liem in terms of Elo and ranking (Liem is currently ranked 22nd in the world), but is considered the "dark horse" of the tournament. In round 3, Donchenko defeated Anish Giri convincingly.

The German player proved his ability by drawing two consecutive games with Le Quang Liem in the first two days of competition, when facing off in standard chess. In which, Le Quang Liem had to "sweat" to be able to reverse the situation and draw with his opponent in the second game.

After drawing two standard games, the two players played two more rapid games (15 minutes each, plus 10 seconds for each move) on November 16 to decide the final winner. In the first game, Le Quang Liem made a serious mistake on the 27th move, giving Donchenko a good chance to advance to the end of the board and a great chance to become queen. Unable to save the situation, Le Quang Liem decided to concede after 39 moves.

In the second game, Le Quang Liem had to hold the black pieces but dominated Donchenko from the start, and then he won convincingly after 38 moves. And the match was once again brought to a draw.

According to the rules, the two players continued to play rapid chess but the time for each game was only 10 minutes and 10 seconds added for each move. And once again, the same chase was repeated by Le Quang Liem - Donchenko. Holding the white pieces in the first game, Le Quang Liem lost, and won the next game holding the black pieces.

Is there any chance for Liem?

After 6 games played in 3 consecutive days, the two players had to continue to enter 2 blitz games to decide the winner. This time the time was reduced to only 5 minutes with 3 seconds added to each move. Le Quang Liem was the world blitz chess champion in 2013.

However, the 12-year gap makes a lot of difference. The most significant difference is probably Liem's age, now 34, approaching the "slope" limit of a chess player - usually considered to be 35. Meanwhile, Donchenko is only 28 years old, although less experienced but has more abundant physical strength.

The two players drew in the first blitz game (game 7), and entered the second game with Le Quang Liem holding the black pieces. But this time the miracle did not appear again. After 32 moves, Quang Liem captured the opponent's queen, but then in a series of hasty moves (because of the limited time), the Vietnamese player made another mistake. From having the advantage, Liem fell into a disadvantage and finally conceded defeat in move 48. In the end, Quang Liem lost with a score of 3.5 - 4.5.

This defeat ended Le Quang Liem's historic journey at the 2025 Chess World Cup in the round of 16, causing him to miss out on a ticket to the Candidates Tournament once again.

The World Chess Cup takes place every two years. But in two years, it will be very difficult for Le Quang Liem, who is in his late 40s, to dream of winning the world championship.

HUY DANG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/le-quang-liem-de-lo-thoi-co-lich-su-2025111710174675.htm