Le Quang Liem maintained a calm and leisurely demeanor throughout the match - Photo: SCREENSHOT
Donchenko is better than Le Quang Liem in terms of position.
Late on November 15 (Vietnam time), Le Quang Liem drew the second match with German chess player Alexander Donchenko, within the framework of round 5 (round of 16) of the 2025 Chess World Cup.
Only those who watched the entire match can understand the spectacular "life and death" moments Le Quang Liem went through, to barely escape defeat.
Donchenko gained the advantage over Le Quang Liem from the 45th move, when the German player still had 1 rook and 4 pawns, while Le Quang Liem only had 1 rook and 3 pawns.
At move 48, Le Quang Liem lost another pawn, being put in an extremely difficult position with 1 rook and 2 pawns against Donchenko's 1 rook and 4 pawns.
Even people who don't know how to play chess can see Donchenko's dominance. Those who are familiar with standard chess can understand the advantage that Le Quang Liem holds, which is time.
The Vietnamese player was overwhelmed in the game, but still outperformed Donchenko by more than 10 minutes in the time frame. This was also the result of Le Quang Liem's reasonable strategy at the beginning of the game.
Thanks to this seemingly small advantage, Le Quang Liem cleverly turned the situation around, pushing Donchenko into a draw in an unimaginable way.
In this chess position, who would have thought that Le Quang Liem (white) could hold Donchenko to a draw? Photo: SCREENSHOT
It should be noted that after move 60, Le Quang Liem only had 1 rook left, while Donchenko had 1 rook and 3 pawns.
On the FIDE ( World Chess Federation) live stream of the match on Youtube, thousands of comments poured in. More than 90% of the comments at this point said "Le Quang Liem will definitely lose", or "It's good to get here".
Many fans are still impatiently wondering "why doesn't Le Quang Liem surrender and shake hands, but keeps trying to hold out and waste time?".
Of course, none of them is Magnus Carlsen, and perhaps only Carlsen is qualified enough to judge Le Quang Liem.
Remarkable composure
Completely overwhelmed in the 60th minute, but Le Quang Liem still leisurely leaned back in his chair, absentmindedly looking around, while his opponent Donchenko scratched his head.
And indeed, the time pressure prevented Donchenko from making any clear-cut moves. Although the German player had an overwhelming advantage in numbers, it was still not enough to quickly finish off Le Quang Liem in the game.
In the end, after the 75th move, both sides accepted a draw. And at this point, fans truly admired Le Quang Liem's class.
Le Quang Liem remained calm and leisurely at the crucial moment, losing to his opponent by 1 goal - Photo: SCREENSHOT
If throughout the match, there were thousands of comments saying Le Quang Liem would lose, then after the match, there were also thousands of comments on Youtube admiring Le Quang Liem's demeanor.
In the common way of speaking on social networks, Le Quang Liem played the whole match with a "chill chill" style, and then successfully overcame difficulties.
Interestingly, while Le Quang Liem was "chilling", Donchenko... asked to go to the bathroom 3 times in the last hour of the match.
It is unclear what the German player's intentions were, but he really missed out on a chance to win the game, despite having the upper hand most of the time.
Le Quang Liem is 34 years old this year, 6 years older than Donchenko, so he is also "older" and more experienced in turning the tide.
To be fair, Donchenko played equally well, even creating a bigger surprise (because his Elo was lower than Quang Liem's), while Le Quang Liem proved his class at the decisive moment.
This afternoon, both will enter a tie-break rapid chess match to decide the winner after 2 draws in standard chess. Vietnamese fans expect that Le Quang Liem will once again demonstrate the style and class of one of the world's top players, to continue making history for Vietnamese chess.
HUY DANG
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/tu-du-doan-le-quang-liem-chac-chan-thua-den-loi-khen-liem-dang-cap-dieu-gi-xay-ra-trong-van-co-20251115215959743.htm
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