Quang Liem escaped, keeping hope of reaching the quarter-finals of the Chess World Cup

(Dan Tri) - Overwhelmed by opponent Donchenko, Le Quang Liem still successfully escaped in the second leg of round 5 of the 2025 Chess World Cup in India on the evening of November 15.

The match between Le Quang Liem (Elo 2,729) and Alexander Donchenko (Elo 2,641) was full of tension. With the advantage of holding the white pieces (going first), Quang Liem took the initiative to attack and wanted to end the match early.

In the 8th move, the number one Vietnamese player made Alexander Donchenko take nearly 20 minutes to think. However, the German player played calmly and neutralized the pressure from Le Quang Liem.

Quang Liem and Donchenko drew after both standard chess games in round 5 of the 2025 Chess World Cup (Photo: FIDE).

In the middle game, Alexander Donchenko even created a slightly better position with an advantage of 1 more pawn than Le Quang Liem. Facing the risk of defeat, Le Quang Liem made precise moves to help him balance the game.

Alexander Donchenko continued to press, attack strongly and in the endgame, the German player had an advantage of 3 pawns over Le Quang Liem. However, when facing the opportunity to win, Alexander Donchenko continuously made inaccurate moves.

At the decisive moment, Le Quang Liem captured all 3 pawns, forcing Alexander Donchenko to accept a draw. Thus, in both matches in round 5, Quang Liem tied with Donchenko in standard chess.

The two players will enter the tie-break match of rapid chess and blitz chess tomorrow (November 16) to decide who will move on to the quarter-finals.

The 2025 Chess World Cup in India will feature 206 players with a total prize pool of $2 million. Le Quang Liem’s previous best World Cup results were reaching the fourth round in 2013 and 2019.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/the-thao/quang-liem-thoat-hiem-giu-lai-hy-vong-vao-tu-ket-world-cup-co-vua-20251115224558410.htm