Le Quang Liem regretfully stopped at round 5 of the 2025 Chess World Cup

Lê Quang Liêm - Ảnh 1. — Le Quang Liem stopped at round 5 of the 2025 Chess World Cup - Photo: FIDE

Entering the 2025 Chess World Cup tie-break, both Le Quang Liem and Alexander Donchenko could not maintain the same high accuracy as in standard chess because time was more urgent, not enough to think of the best series of moves.

So incorrect moves appeared more frequently, and the one who took advantage of mistakes to win the game in the end was Grandmaster Alexander Donchenko.

Entering the first tie-break (rapid chess), Le Quang Liem held the white pieces, using the Grünfeld Defense opening.

Chess player Alexander Donchenko had prepared carefully for today's match, because when the Vietnamese player made an inaccurate move, Donchenko took full advantage of that mistake - completely different from yesterday's standard chess game.

With an extremely dangerous through-lock in column c, the German Grandmaster successfully neutralized all of Liem's counter-attacks and took the lead with a score of 1-0 in the tie-break (total score of Round 5 is 2-1).

With his back against the wall, Le Quang Liem, holding black, entered the second game with the mentality of "nothing to lose". He took the initiative to attack, accepting the risk of offering his kingside pawn and decided not to castle, creating a complicated and risky game.

Donchenko continued to perform well in the mid-game, even making two moves that were analyzed by the computer as "Genius Moves".

However, Donchenko was unable to maintain his composure, along with the brilliance of Le Quang Liem as he remained calm and found the best move to counter his opponent. After the Vietnamese player successfully neutralized the white attack, Le Quang Liem immediately responded with a genius move of his own, regaining the advantage and ending the game with a victory, balancing the score at 2-2.

In the 10 minutes plus 10 seconds round, the scenario was still the same. Grandmaster Alexander Donchenko took the lead, but Le Quang Liem immediately equalized the score 3-3.

After a spectacular score chase, the life-and-death battle entered blitz chess format (5 minutes plus 3 seconds).

The tension continued to be extremely high as the two players were evenly matched in the first game. However, in the deciding game, a cruel turning point occurred.

German player Alexander Donchenko made a genius move at the decisive moment, completely turning the game around and winning the match with a score of 4.5 - 3.5.

Despite having to stop at the 2025 Chess World Cup, Grandmaster Le Quang Liem left the tournament with his head held high. Grandmaster Le Quang Liem's resilient, courageous performance, along with his dramatic and breathtaking matches, brought great pride to Vietnamese chess in the international arena.

TUAN LONG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/le-quang-liem-dung-chan-tiec-nuoi-tai-vong-5-world-cup-co-vua-2025-20251116210034021.htm