Quang Liem entered the quarterfinals of Carlsen for the first time

Quang Liem needed 2.5 points to secure his place in the quarterfinals, on the last day of the qualifying round on April 27, Hanoi time, and he did that one round early. Vietnam’s number one player won 8.5 points after 15 games, equaling points with Alireza Firouzja and Teimour Radjabov. With a sub-index lower than Firouzja and higher than Radjabov, Quang Liem was seventh, and would meet second-placed Hikaru Nakamura in the quarterfinals.

Quang Liem took the white army, drew Leinier Dominguez in game 11. After that, he took the black army, punished Vidit Santosh Rujrathi’s mistake in chatting and won. The HCM City player drew the next two games against Radjabov and Aryan Tari, to win tickets to go one round early. In the last game, he took white but lost to Levon Aronian. This was Quang Liem’s ​​third defeat in the group stage, after losing to Magnus Carlsen and Jan-Krzysztof Duda on the first day.

Chess King Carlsen topped the qualifying round with 10.5 points, one point ahead of Nakamura. Due to being seventh, Quang Liem avoided Carlsen in the quarterfinals. But, Nakamura was not an easy opponent to play when he was ranked fourth in the world for fast chess, and number one lightning.

If Nakamura is eliminated, Quang Liem will meet the winner in the match between Firouzja and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The other two quarter-finals are Carlsen against Radjabov, and Wesley So meets Aronian.

In the quarterfinals, each pair played for two days, four games each day, quickly won and lost. Thus, Quang Liem can play up to eight fast games with Nakamura. The player who wins one day, and at least draws the other day, will continue. If you win one day and lose the other day, or draw both days, you will play a tie-break with two lightning games. If they still tie after these two games, they play one game of armageddon: White has five minutes, Black has four minutes, if a draw Black will continue.

The quarterfinals take place on April 27 and April 28, the specific time has not been announced.

New in Chess Classic is part of the Champions Chess Tour system organized by Carlsen’s company. This system has a prize fund of 1.5 million USD, and the prize for New in Chess Classic is 100,000 USD.

Xuan Binh