Vietnamese chess grandmaster out of world team in FIDE tournament

The competition, held May 5-10 on the Chess.com website, will feature six teams – the U.S., Russia, Europe, China, India and a team representing the "Rest of the World."

Before the "Rest of the World" team list was released, FIDE’s Chief Communications Officer David Llada had told VnExpress: "Elo (rating) is not the only factor in choosing players for the teams. The captain will be the one to make the final decision. I think Quang Liem has a great chance of joining the world team. He is very well respected among players."

But when final team list was revealed Thursday, Liem’s name was missing. The team will be captained by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich (Russia).

The other four main players of the World team are Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan), Alireza Firouzja (Iran), Bassem Amin (Egypt) and Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine). The two back-up players for the team are Jorge Cori (Peru) and Dinara Saduakassova (Kazakhstan).

Many people took to the social media to express their concerns over the team list, including Denmark's Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen, who asked FIDE on Twitter why the federation had included Azerbaijan and Ukraine in world team, since they are part of Europe. FIDE did not respond to Peter Heine Nielsen's comment.

Based on the Elo rating of players in each team, China team has the highest average of 2717, followed by Europe (2687), Russia (2662), U.S. (2641), India (2605), and the "Rest of the World" team (2597).

All games will be played in a rapid format that has each player beginning the game with 25 minutes on his/her clock with 10 extra seconds after each move.

The first stage (May5-9) of the tournament will see teams playing double round-robin clashes. The top two teams will play the final on May 10 for the $180,000 prize fund.