FIDE World Cup, Last 128

 This was the round in which we got to see the big names in action. But, unfortunately, not all of them. Levon Aronian, who had been unwell going into the tournament, withdrew from his match against Australia's Bobby Cheng. Fabiano Caruana's match was also terminated on the grounds of illness, after his opponent, Susanto Megaranto of Indonesia, tested positive for COVID-19. (The test result was delivered 15 moves into their first game, which means that that game gets credited as a game for rating purposes.) Let us hope both players make a speedy recovery with no ill-effects.

Ravi Haria once again took a higher-rated opponent to playoffs, but this time was unsuccessful, as Bacrot coped excellently with a rather speculative gambit in the Classical French. British hopes for success in this event will have to wait for another occasion.

The other big news of the round was the elimination of three top-ten players at this stage. As well as the aforementioned Aronian, exiting in this round were #9 seed Lenier Dominguez-Perez (USA, previously Cuba), who lost to Jahongir Vakhidov (Uzbekistan), and #8 seed Alireza Firouzja (France, previously Iran), who lost to Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan). Another notable giant-killing was 58-year-old Michal Krasenkow (Poland)'s win against Kirill Alekseenko (Russia), dealing a blow to the latter's chances of qualifying for a second successive Candidates' tournament.





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