Today Quang Liem and Truong Son started at the World Cup
Two top Vietnamese chess players will compete in the world's largest chess tournament in Tbisili (Georgia) from September 3 to September 27.
The 2017 Chess World Cup attracted attention with the surprise appearance of the World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen (Elo 2,827). This helped the tournament gather the 15 best players in the world, with a prize fund of 1.6 million dollars, and two tickets to the Candidate Tournament for the two who reached the finals. They were among the 128 top players participating in the tournament, including 120 grandmasters.
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Carlsen's presence makes the 2017 World Cup more attractive. |
Le Quang Liem (2,739, 22nd in the world) and Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son (2,629, 154th) did not miss the opportunity to join the chess giants. They are the only two representatives of Vietnam present in Tbisili. The country with the largest number of players is Russia with 20 players, 11 more than the two countries behind, the US and China.
According to the draw results, Quang Liem will only meet German player Vitaly Kunin (2,550) in the first round. "Quang Liem is very formidable in a competition system like the World Cup. He is a wizard in rapid and blitz chess, very difficult to beat," German grandmaster Jan Gustafsson commented before the tournament.
If he overcomes Kunin, Vietnam's number one player will likely sit at the same table as Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2,702 - India's number three player) in the second round. The real challenge for Quang Liem will come in the third round, when he may have to face his long-time rival Ding Liren (2,771 - China's number one player). From the fourth round onwards, the player from Ho Chi Minh City will face the Top 10.
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Quang Liem promises to face a big challenge from round three. |
Not as easy as Quang Liem, Truong Son had to meet Adhiban Baskaran (2,670, India's fifth) in the first round. "I chose Baskaran, but Truong Son is not an easy opponent. I faced him in a match between Germany and Vietnam a long time ago," Gustafsson mentioned the match celebrating the 35th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Germany and Vietnam (2010). At that time, he and Truong Son drew. If he wins the first round, the player from Kien Giang will almost certainly have to face Ian Nepomniachtchi (2,741), who is very strong in speed chess.
The lucky draw of this year's tournament belonged to Oluwafemi Balogun (2,255), because he "got" to play against Chess King Magnus Carlsen in the first round. The player from Nigeria has the lowest Elo rating of the tournament.
The first game of round one will take place at 6:00 p.m. this afternoon, September 3 (Hanoi time).
The Chess World Cup is held every two years, with 128 of the world's top players participating in a single-elimination match. In each round, the players play two standard chess games (each player has 90 minutes to think for the first 40 moves, 30 minutes for the rest of the game, plus 30 seconds after each move from the first) on two consecutive days. If they are still tied, they go to a tie-break on the third day. Both players will have to play the following tie-breaks, in turn, until a winner is determined: Two rapid games (25 minutes plus 10 seconds per move), two rapid games (10+10), two blitz games (5+3), one decisive "armageddon" game (white has five minutes, black has four minutes, plus three seconds for each move from move 61, if the tie is considered black wins). The 2017 World Cup is considered the most attractive tournament ever, with the world's Top 15 participating. Of the world's Top 30, only two did not come to Tbisili, namely Veselin Topalov (2,749) and Leinier Dominguez Perez (2,739). The most promising candidate for the championship is the Chess King Magnus Carlsen, the world's leading player in both standard chess (2,827), rapid chess (2,909) and blitz chess (2,948). The tournament also has the participation of the world's number one female chess player - Hou Yifan (2,670). The average Elo rating (according to the ranking in August 2017) of the 128 players is 2,642. The two finalists will qualify for the Candidates Tournament, which will determine the winner and challenge the World Champion, Carlsen. This will be the Norwegian’s first World Cup appearance, a pleasant surprise since the reigning World Champion has never been there before. The tournament was launched in 2000 and has been held eight times so far. Since the third World Cup, the number of participants has increased from 24 to 128. Grandmaster Dao Thien Hai was the first Vietnamese player to participate in the tournament (2005). This is the sixth consecutive World Cup that Quang Liem has participated in. Meanwhile, Truong Son has always accompanied Quang Liem, except in 2009. Quang Liem's best achievement in the tournament was the fourth round in 2013, while Truong Son was the second round (2011, 2013, 2015). Past winners of the tournament include Anand (2000, 2002), Aronian (2005), Kamsky (2007), Gelfand (2009), Svidler (2011), Kramnik (2013) and Karjakin (2015). |
According to VNE
