FIDE World Cup, Last 64

 Another round of the World Cup, another set of surprise results. We've only just arrived at the last 32, but more than half of the players initially seeded to be the quarter-finalists are already out. Adding to Aronian and Firouzja in this category were #2 seed Fabiano Caruana (who lost to Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan), #4 seed Anish Giri (thus causing Nodirbek Abdusattorov to join the set of Uzbek giant-killers) and #6 seed Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (who lost to Armenia's Maik Hartirosyan). #7 seed Maxime Vachier-Lagrave did make it through, but his match went all the way to an Armageddon game.

Also exiting at this stage were the last remaining representatives of the three Southern continents: Jorge Cori of Peru, Bobby Cheng of Australia and Bassem Amin of Egypt. Amin's elimination was especially notable in that he was the highest-rated player remaining in his eighth of the draw; with the elimination of Firouzja and Dominguez Perez in the previous round and Amin and van Foreest in this, one of the quarter-final places will now definitely go to a player outside the original top 32 seeds.





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