Chess World Cup: Aronian, Liren, So in last four

The tie-break games between Peter Svidler and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will decide the fourth semifinalist on Sunday.

The victorious duo of Ding Liren and Wesley So joined Levon Aronian in the semifinals of the World Cup chess following identical victory margins of 1.5-0.5 points. (Representative Image)

The victorious duo of Ding Liren and Wesley So joined Levon Aronian in the semifinals of the World Cup chess following identical victory margins of 1.5-0.5 points here on Saturday.

The tie-break games between Peter Svidler and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave will decide the fourth semifinalist on Sunday.

In Game Two of the quarterfinals, Ding Liren was the first to advance with a 41-move victory over Richard Rapport. Aronian, who won Game One on Friday, and Vassily Ivanchuk were involved in a closely fought encounter that eventually ended in a 71-move deadlock. Wesley So carved out a hard-fought victory in 83 moves over Vladimir Fedoseev.

The results:

Quarterfinals: Game Two: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 0.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Arm, 1.5); Ding Liren (Chn, 1.5) bt Richard Rapport (Hun, 0.5); Wesley So (USA, 1.5) bt Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 0.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 1).