Armenian GM Levon Aronian scored the third consecutive victory in Round 5 of the FIDE Nations Cup today and played a draw against Vladislav Artemiev in Round 6.
China continues to dominate the field in the FIDE Chess.com Online Nations Cup, winning two more matches against USA and “Rest of the World” on Day 3 of the competition.
Europe fully recovered from a rocky start and won two more matches. In Rounds 5 the team of Garry Kasparov defeated “Rest of the World” thanks to the rook endgame victory of Levon Aronian vs Alireza Firouzja.
In Round 6 it was Vachier-Lagrave who broke the stubborn defense of Nepomniachtchi in the 111-moves game and brought the match victory.
The re-match between Europe and USA in round 9 may decide the faith of second place in the tournament. The two best teams will qualify for the superfinal on Sunday.
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.
