Nakamura: ‘Quang Liem excellent defense’

“During the tournament, I always felt comfortable and enjoyed the game,” Nakamura told the tournament organizers. “In the past, I was the player who showed the most emotions on the chessboard. But in this tournament, I didn’t show any emotion, until I had to shake my head in the last game to meet Liem.”

When asked why he shook his head at Quang Liem, Nakamura replied: “Not because of the result, because a draw is fine. But because Liem made a mistake and lost b2, so I think I had a chance to win. But Quang Liem played very well at blitz, defended well after losing well, so I had no chance to win.”

In the last blitz game on the morning of August 16, Quang Liem held a white piece to meet Nakamura – a player who was sure to win the championship at that time. The Ho Chi Minh City player made a mistake in move 21, when he changed the statue at h6. This move causes the white queen to be pulled from the c1 square, so that the black queen catches b2. Despite the good news, Quang Liem still managed to draw, monopolizing fifth place with a reward of 12,500 USD.

If he loses the match against Nakamura, Quang Liem will finish fifth with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Leinier Dominguez. At that time, Quang Liem’s ​​bonus was only 10,500 USD.

And Nakamura also regretted not being able to beat the number one player in Vietnam. If he does that, he will earn 4.6 Elo more to reach 2,894, enough to maintain the number one position in the world. The draw left Nakamura with only 2,884 Elo, falling to second in the world, behind Chess King Magnus Carlsen.

Nakamura also said that experts have not properly assessed Quang Liem’s ​​lightning strength. He added: “In the last game, I thought Liem was determined to win to top the content of Blitz. So I expected the game to be tense. Liem played great. I said there are many players with lower Elo. than their ability in this tournament. But, people really didn’t pay attention to Liem’s ​​ability. He played brilliantly at Blitz.”

Quang Liem finished last in the fast chess content, but jumped to fifth place after two days of blitz chess. He earned 84 more Elo, to reach a new factor of 2,774, ranked 14th in the world in blitz chess. This is also Quang Liem’s ​​highest Elo in the past five years.

Xuan Binh