Quang Liem and Truong Son both won on the first day of ChessKid Cup

Chess players Le Quang Liem and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son will meet in the quarter-finals of the winners' bracket of the second-tier ChessKid Cup, part of the Champions Chess Tour.

Quang Liem defeated 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster Bharath Subramaniyam H in all three games, in the opening match of the tournament on the morning of May 23, Hanoi time. In the first game, he used combination moves such as sacrificing a horse or checking a rook to win. In the second game, Quang Liem sacrificed a bishop and threatened to checkmate in three moves, forcing his young opponent to surrender. He only needed one more draw to win the match, but Vietnam's number one player did more than that to win 3-0.

Quang Liem (left) and Truong Son at the 2017 Asian Indoor Games in Turkmenistan.

Truong Son struggled more as he had to face Grandmaster Dmitry Andreikin in the first match. After two draws in the first two games, Artemiev took the lead in the third game in what was considered a balanced endgame. The Russian player took advantage of Truong Son's small mistakes to win and take a 2-1 lead.

In the must-win fourth game, Truong Son achieved his goal by capturing his opponent's queen, bringing the game to armageddon. He captured a pawn in the middlegame and used this advantage to capture the suit advantage in the endgame and won 3-2.

Truong Son's opponent in the quarterfinals of the winners' bracket is Quang Liem, in a match that took place on the evening of May 23. The loser in this match still has a chance to continue in the tournament because ChessKid Cup applies the double elimination format.

The remaining representative of Vietnam at the tournament also played in the second division, Le Tuan Minh, but he lost to GM Oparin 0.5-2.5 in the first match and had to go down to the loser's bracket to meet GM Vugar Rasulov.

The main round of the ChessKid Cup takes place from May 22 to May 26, the second tournament in the Champions Chess Tour 2023 system, after Airthings Masters and Chessable Masters. All three Vietnamese players qualified for the qualifying round, but were not in the Top 8, so they played in the second division.

The second division consists of 16 players competing in a double elimination format, with a prize fund of $71,500. Participants will receive a minimum of $3,000 in prize money. Players who lose two games will be eliminated, and the winners of each division will not lose more than one game. In addition to Quang Liem and Andreikin, the second division also includes Super Grandmasters such as Pavel Eljanov, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov or Vladimir Fedoseev.

Xuan Binh

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