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| Lê Quang Liêm and teammate Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn are Vietnamese representatives at the FIDE World Cup in Russia. — Photo FIDE |
HÀ NỘI — Two Vietnamese Grandmasters will take part in the FIDE World Cup 2019 which begins on Tuesday in the town of Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
National No 1 Lê Quang Liêm who is seeded No 22 will play Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus in the first round.
His teammate Nguyễn Ngọc Trường Sơn will see stronger opponent Kirill Alekseenko of the hosts. Sơn is seeded No 80 while Alekseenko is No 49.
The favourites for the tournament are Ding Liren of China, world No 3, Anish Giri of the Netherlands, world No 4 and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave from France, world No 7.
This year's knock-out tournament has lured 128 players competing in seven rounds. In matches from round one to six, athletes will compete in two classical games while the bronze-medal and final matches on October 4 consist of four games.
If score is a draw, they will play tie-break games to identify the winner.
The finalists of the tournament will qualify for the Candidates Tournament for the World Chess Championship 2020.
The total prize money is US$1.6 million, with the winner walking away with $110,000.
In the previous World Cup in 2017 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Armenian Grandmaster Levon Aronian took the top position for the second time in his career. — VNS
