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 candidatesJeffery 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.