Once again, Donchenko manages to get a slight edge out of the opening. But even though he has a stronger center, it's still a bit shaky for him as the center is a bit delicate and under piece pressure from Liem Le.
Moving the bishop forward looks very tempting here for Donchenko, with some nasty pressure against the then pinned knight.
Donchenko throws an in-between move into the mix, fracturing the structure and setting up a possible kingside attack in the future.
Now, Liem Le is going to have to be very careful about his king safety.
Liem Le comes in with his queen to try to pressure both the center and queenside pawns.
Beautiful play, and now there's just no way for Liem Le to defend this pawn. And what's worse, his king is going to come under a crushing attack.
Not the absolute most precise, but Donchenko is still keeping a winning advantage. Not completely trivial though...will Liem Le manage to wriggle out once again?!
Liem Le setting up some threats of his own, a very practical decision confusing matters here for Donchenko.
Donchenko finds the best reply!
But now this game can still go in any direction, as there is no clear blueprint for how to make progress for Donchenko. So the players will have to rely on murky calculation under huge time pressure...
A nice opportunity here for Donchenko to add to his advantage, by pushing the pawn forward and carving out a dangerous passed pawn for himself.
Donchenko finds the right plan, and he's again a big favorite to win this one.
This move keeps control, while also hitting the pawn in the center.
Liem Le brings his queen out to hit Donchenko's pawn while also defending his own central pawn.
He was clearly playing for this, as evidenced from his body language in the live feed. He's seen it! And the queen sacrifice is about to come!!
Donchenko will now sacrifice his queen, and force Liem Le to capture it with his rook. And at the end will have a knight fork, to end up a full rook up!
What a match. Pure exhaustion on the face of both players, but a huge accomplishment for the underdog Alexander Donchenko.
Liem Le, for his part, has to be credited for his gritty resilience, coming back on demand in two of their games.
But ultimately, a deserved victory for Donchenko as he showed the more ambitious chess on balance, and seemed to be the side to cause the biggest problems for his opponent.
Germany still has one grandmaster remaining in the 2025 FIDE World Cup as we prepare for tomorrow's quarterfinals. See you then!