Entering the 5th round of the World Cup, Quang Liem made history for Vietnamese chess

VHO - Vietnam's No. 1 chess player - Le Quang Liem just had an important victory in round 4 to enter round 5 of the World Chess Cup (FIDE World Cup 2025), taking place in Goa (India).

After defeating Jeffery Xiong (USA, Elo 2,649) in round 3, Quang Liem (Elo 2,729) entered round 4 to meet reigning Indian chess champion Karthik Venkataraman (Elo 2,597).

Quang Liem won the second time when going back at the tournament

Quang Liem went first to let Karthik Venkataraman tie in game 1. Although he then went second in game 2, the 1991-born player still excellently defeated his opponent.

A 1.5 - 0.5 win over Karthik Venkataraman helped Quang Liem enter the 5th round at the Chess World Cup for the first time in his career.

Previously, the best achievement of the Ho Chi Minh City player at this arena was reaching the 4th round in 2013 and 2019. This is also the best achievement of Vietnamese chess at the World Cup.

In an interview after his win in round 4, Quang Liem said: "Karthik had better opening preparation as he entered the game quite quickly. I think I did well to balance the game. When my opponent avoided exchanging the Queen, I was happy because my game became better. I was happy to find the right moves to win."

Alexander Donchenko (left) is Quang Liem's ​​next opponent.

By winning a ticket to round 5, Quang Liem is also sure to have at least 25,000 USD in prize money.

In round 5, Quang Liem will face a lower-rated opponent, Alexander Donchenko (Elo 2,641), a German-Russian player who is currently outside the world's top 50.

However, on the way to round 5, Donchenko created an earthquake when he eliminated the tournament's number 4 seed, Anish Giri (Netherlands), in round 3.

In the most recent encounter at the Biel Chess Festival 2024 in the Netherlands, the two players were evenly matched.

Source: https://baovanhoa.vn/the-thao/vao-vong-5-world-cup-quang-liem-lam-nen-lich-su-cho-co-vua-viet-nam-181046.html