Le Quang Liem enters round 3, 2025 Chess World Cup shocks with master

(NLDO) – Grandmaster Le Quang Liem defeated Baadur Jobava in the second game of the second round, winning with a score of 1.5 – 0.5 to enter the third round of the 2025 Chess World Cup.

After accepting to share points with Baadur Jobava in the first game, Le Quang Liem (Elo 2,729) was at a slight disadvantage when holding the black pieces in the second game against the Georgian player with Elo 2,573. Baadur Jobava chose the rare Scotch opening and soon fell into a difficult situation before the blockade of the Vietnamese representative.

DKT Le Quang Liem won to enter round 3 of World Cup

A series of wrong moves made Baadur Jobava confused and accepted defeat after only 22 moves. The game ended quickly and statistics showed that Le Quang Liem's ​​correct move rate was 98% the same as the computer's, without making any mistakes.

Le Quang Liem has a chance to go far at the 2025 World Cup

Le Quang Liem won the right to continue with the final score of 1.5-0.5 after two games. The place in the third round guarantees Le Quang Liem a bonus of 16,000 USD from the organizers. He will have a day off before meeting Jeffery Xiong (USA, 2,649) in the third round.

So Wesley (left) unexpectedly lost to Titas Stremavicius

Many second round matches had to be extended due to draws in standard games, leaving players to wait for the rapid and blitz tie-breaks on day three. There were quite a few shocking results in the second round when the world's 8th ranked player So Wesley (USA, 2,756) unexpectedly lost to Titas Stremavicius (Lithuania, 2,531) with a score of 0.5 - 1.5.

Meanwhile, another super grandmaster, Ian Nepominachtchi (Russia, 2,732), lost 0.5-1.5 to Ghosh Diptayan (India, 2,573).

Ian Nepominachtchi (left) lost to Ghosh Diptayan

The 2025 Chess World Cup will take place in Goa, India from November 1 to 27 with a prize fund of $2 million. 206 players will compete in a knockout format to select the champion and the three best faces to receive a place in the Candidates 2026.

Reigning world champion Gukesh Dommaraju competes with Kazybek Nogerbek

The champion will receive a prize of 120,000 USD. Even the players who are eliminated in the first round will receive 3,500 USD.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/le-quang-liem-vao-vong-3-world-cup-co-vua-2025-soc-voi-cao-thu-196251106094838094.htm