Five out of eight games ended decisively at the start of the round-of-16 in the open section of the World Cup. Rating favourites Magnus Carlsen, Dommaraju Gukesh, Leinier Dominguez and Arjun Erigaisi all won, while Nijat Abasov was the one rating underdog to grab a full point. In the quarterfinals of the women’s section, Tan Zhongyi and Nurgyul Salimova obtained wins on Saturday. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage
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Six players have already reached the round-of-16 in the open section of the FIDE World Cup, including Fabiano Caruana, who beat Ray Robson, and Alexey Sarana, who knocked out sixth seed Wesley So. The remaining ten spots will be decided in Friday’s tiebreaks, with Magnus Carlsen reaching that stage after bouncing back in his match against Vincent Keymer. In the women’s section, three players secured their spots in quarterfinals: Aleksandra Goryachkina, Tan Zhongyi and Polina Shuvalova. | Photo: FIDE / Anna Shtourman
Two players from the top 10 rating-wise in Baku were eliminated in the tiebreaks of round 3 at the open section of the World Cup. Nijat Abasov knocked out Anish Giri, while Jaime Santos left Teimour Radjabov out of contention. Meanwhile, the lowest-rated player still going is Turkish GM Vahap Sanal, who got the better of Anton Korobov on Monday. In the women’s section, the one upset of the day saw Teodora Injac from Serbia knocking out Alexandra Kosteniuk. | Photo: chess.com / Maria Emelianova
Vincent Keymer beat Magnus Carlsen for the first time in his career and now only needs a draw on Thursday to knock the world number one out of the World Cup. The other big upset of the day saw Alexey Sarana brilliantly defeating Wesley So with the black pieces. In the women’s section, 7 out of 8 games finished drawn. Bella Khotenashvili scored the one win of the day, as she beat third seed Humpy Koneru. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage