The 18-year-old knocked out Anish Giri at the World Cup but faces a battle to make the final and reach the 2020 world title candidates

Jeffery Xiong eliminated Anish Giri, the No 2 seed from the Netherlands, at the $1.6m World Cup in Siberia this week and the Texan, 18, now has an outside chance to emulate the legendary Bobby Fischer by becoming a world title candidate as a teenager.

The 128-player knock-out at Khanty-Mansiysk reaches its round of 16 this weekend, and the chess superpowers Russia, USA and China provide more than half the survivors.

In contrast, India, who began with 10 qualifiers and high hopes, saw them all knocked out by the third round, while the three Englishmen Michael Adams, Gawain Jones and Luke McShane failed to survive beyond round two.

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McShane was closest, but needing a speed win to take his eight-game marathon against Daniil Yuffa into sudden death Armageddon, he missed a fleeting chance at move 81 to trap the Russian’s venturesome d7 knight by Bd4-a7! which would have made Yuffa’s game resignable.

The round of 16 starts on Friday and continues on Saturday, with speed tie-breaks on Sunday. Games start at 11am and can be viewed free and live online. There are move by move grandmaster and computer commentaries, plus a live stream and interviews with players.

Most of the favourites are still there, with the exception ofthe US champion, Hikaru Nakamura, who lost in round two, Russia’s Sergey Karjakin, who fell into the checkmate shown in this week’s puzzle, and Giri, who went out in the third round speed tie-breaks to Xiong, who could qualify for the 2020 world title candidates by reaching the final two.

The candidates would be a major achievement for the Texan, bettered only by Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen who did it at age 15-16, but Xiong’s remaining hurdles are difficult.

His 3.5-2.5 win over Giri owed plenty to good fortune as the Dutchman had at least three winning positions in the match including the final game.

Xiong had a major setback on Friday when he lost his first game (of two) to Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda in 42 moves. The American now must now win the return on Saturday to take the match into tie-breaks.

India’s Nihal Sarin, 15, meeting higher ranked opponents, won 2-0 in round one and crushed the Azeri Eltaj Safarli in their first game. But then Safarli surprised the teen with the ancient Evans Gambit 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 Nc6 3 Bc4 Bc5 4 b4 and Sarin, taken unawares, blundered a piece in time pressure and went out tamely in the speed tie-break.

Iran’s Alireza Firouzja, 16, widely predicted to become a top-10 player, was paired with the No 1 seed, Ding Liren, in the third round and drew the two classical games comfortably. But Ding’s self-confidence in one-hour games is strong after he defeated Carlsen in the Sinquefield Cup tie-break, and he outclassed Firouzja in rapid.

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The bar for future greatness for players in their mid-teens is set high. Fischer, Garry Kasparov and Carlsen all produced candidate level performances at 15-16, and very few others have achieved that. Carlsen has plenty to worry about if Ding becomes his 2020 challenger, but who leads the next generation remains unclear. China’s Wei Yi, who at 15 became the youngest ever 2700-player, lost to his compatriot Yu Yangyi and joined Firouzja and Sarin as a casualty in the second or third round.

The ultimate winner in Siberia is anyone’s guess. Ding is favourite, but six or seven others have the class and former successes to capture the trophy. It is an interesting event to watch, whether or not you are already a regular online spectator of top chess tournaments.

3637 1 Bc5+ Kg8 (Kf7 3 Qe7+ is quicker) 2 Qb8+ Kf7 2 Qf8+ Ke6 4 Qe7+ Kf5 5 g4+ Kf4 6 Be3 mate.