On November 8, Le Quang Liem played his first standard match in round 3 against player Jeffery Xiong (USA). Before the match started, Le Quang Liem was rated higher thanks to keeping the elo 2729 coefficient, surpassing his opponent. However, the Vietnamese chess grandmaster was quite cautious when opening this match.
Le Quang Liem leads the black team, behind while Jeffery Xiong has the advantage of going ahead (white team). It was this advantage that caused Jeffery Xiong to focus on sending troops to attack Le Quang Liem at a disadvantage.
However, Le Quang Liem is still capable of defending and has the opportunity to play. After 53 moves, the grandmaster of Vietnamese chess made his opponent accept defeat.
The two players will meet in the second leg of standard chess on the evening of November 8, local time at the competition venue in India.
According to the 2025 World Cup regulations, each match will take place in 2 standard chess matches. If the result is a draw, the two sides will continue to play a tie-break with quick chess and flash chess to determine the winner and loser in the end. Each pair has a maximum time to compete to find the final result of 3 days.
The 2025 World Cup is organized by the FIDE World Chess Federation, attracting 206 players in the men's event. Grandmaster Le Quang Liem and Grandmaster Bang Gia Huy are the two Vietnamese players who were given a place to participate. The tournament will have a final round on November 27.
