Armenia’s Levon Aronian became the hero of the day today, scoring two out of two with wins over Vidit Gujrathi and Dominguez Dominguez Perez in the 3rd and 4th rounds of the FIDE Chess.com Nations Cup.
China dominates the field after four rounds. However, in round 3 they were on a verge of losing against Russia after Vladislav Artemiev defeated Wei Yi in mere 25 moves. Ding Liren saved the day winning against Ian Nepomniachtchi to level the score. In round 4 the rating favorite convincingly defeated India and are leading the event by two match points, FIDE reports.
The rough start continues for team India. They lost both matches and sit in the cellar of the tournament table. Europe, on the contrary, bounced back winning both matches, most importantly against Team USA in round 4 which helped them climb to the shared second spot.
The International Chess Federation and Chess.com hold the Online Nations Cup, a team competition held May 5-10, 2020. The tournament features six teams : Russia, USA, Europe, China, India, plus a team representing the “Rest of the World.”
Levon Aronian plays for Europe together with Garry Kasparov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anish Giri, Anna Muzychuk, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Nana Dzagnidze.
Two retired legends, Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, are the captains for the European and Indian teams respectively. A former world championship rival of both of them, Viswanathan Anand, defends the first board of the Indian team.
The group stage runs May 5-9, with two rounds per day. The Superfinal is played on May 10.
