Quang Liem beat defending champion Prague Masters
CzechVietnam’s number one player Le Quang Liem defeated Sam Shankland to rise to 26th in the world, in the first round of the Prague Masters standard chess tournament on the evening of June 8.
Quang Liem in the game against Sam Shankland at the Prague Masters, Czech on June 8. Image: PCF
After 860 days without playing standard chess, Quang Liem returned to take the white piece to meet the second seed Shankland. The number one player in Vietnam continued to use the opening 1.d4, and the position was balanced until the middle. The flag fell into a situation that required deep computation, and that’s where Shankland made a mistake.
The position after 31…Nc3. Shankland jumps to catch the queen and the white car. At first glance this seems to be a reasonable move, but it is Black’s fatal mistake. The American player missed a combo that helped White win.
The position after 33.Qd3. Quang Liem was the runner-up, but Black couldn’t catch the white queen because the white car would show in row eight. The black queen will have to run away, or the black car will return to c8 to protect the rear. This backwater is an important part of White’s plan of attack.
The following flag image 34…Qb6. Quang Liem is about to put the code on g5 and threaten to catch h7 or f7 well. Black has no way of defending both of these pawns. With an advantage over good, White gains the upper hand.
Quang Liem then also caught one more black pawn, to enter the endgame with the advantage of two pawns. Shankland would like to lose after 42 moves, because the level of a Super grandmaster is almost impossible to miss this advantage.
This win brings Quang Liem back to the FIDE rankings in 26th place, with an instant Elo of 2,714. He surpassed Shankland himself to take the position. The goal of the Vietnamese player is to return to the Top 20 in the world after two 2022 summer tournaments.
Also in the first round, Vietnamese-born player Nguyen Thai Dai Van held a white piece, drawing third seed Parham Maghsoodloo. Of the five pairs of the first round, two pairs of White won. The number one player at home, David Navara, defeated David Anton, while Pentala Harikrishna beat fellow Indian Vidit Gujrathi. The remaining match between Salem Saleh and Francisco Vallejo drew.
In the second round, starting at 8pm on Thursday, June 9, Quang Liem held a black piece to meet Maghsoodloo (Iran).
The Prague Masters is a standard chess tournament that invites 10 players with an average Elo of 2,693, including six Super Grandmasters. These players are all in the Top 60 in the world, except Dai Van. The tournament takes place once a day, from June 8 to June 17, according to the scoring circle format.
Xuan Binh
at Blogtuan.info – Source: vnexpress.net – Read the original article here
