Journalism of Courage
FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, Round 2 Game 1 Results and Standings Highlights: The second round of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 commences on Tuesday at the Resort Rio Convention Centre in Goa, with 17 Indian players still in contention. The top fifty-seeded players, including eight Indians, received byes in the opening round. The second round also sees the return of the top seed and current World Champion, D. Gukesh, India No. 1 Arjun Erigaisi and third seed R. Praggnanandhaa.
A total of 24 Indians were part of the 206-player field. With the top 50 seeds given byes, 16 Indians were in action during the opening round. After seven were eliminated, 17 remain in the title race. The opening round saw the exit of reigning Women’s World Cup champion Divya Deshmukh, the only female wildcard in the event. After the two classical games, five Indians — Divya, Neelash Saha, Luke Leon Mendonca, Himal Gusain and Harshavardhan GB — made an early exit.
Two more Indian contenders — Lalit Babu MR and Raja Rithvik R — were eliminated in the tiebreaks, bringing the total eliminations to seven. Conversely, seven Indians, including the likes of Pranav V, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Pranesh M, directly qualified for Round 2 by winning their matches in the classical games without needing tiebreaks.
You can check out the move-by-move action from Chess World Cup and also play along in the interactive below. For all our live updates straight from Amit Kamath from Arpora, Goa, in real time, scroll down.
Both Gukesh and Nihal Sarin fought hard but were held to a draw. Five-hour battle for both of them but they are forced to share the spoils.
Stamatis is holding his fort well against Nihal. Proper blitz game territory for the Indian now who is making moves while having less than a minute on his clock. The time situation is almost the same for his Greek opponent as well.
Meanwhile, Pa Iniyan played a draw with Czech GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen.
The tables have turned in Gukesh's game. It's him who is playing with very little time on the clock; his advantage has also fizzled out, and he needs to make sure he does not give any outside chance to Nogerbek.
The all-Indian clash between Karthik Venkataraman and Aravindh Chithambaram also ends in a draw as the Chennai duo shares the spoils.
Another upset of sorts as fourth seed Anish Giri was held to a draw by IM Bojan Maksimovic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in their Game 1 contest of Round 2.
A tremendous result for 2535-rated Australian Temur Kuybokarov. He holds Praggnanandhaa to a draw that too with black pieces.
A draw for Pranesh M, who held German GM Dmitri Kollars with dark pieces.
Big result for Pranav V! The Junior World Champion looks in tremendous form as he goes on to beat Norway No. 3 Aryan Tari with black pieces.
The game, which seemed to be ending in a quiet draw, changed rapidly when Tari made a big blunder -- with his move f4 -- which essentially put his queen under some serious threat.
SL Narayanan held veteran English GM Nikita Vitiugov to a draw.
Faustino Oro continues to impress! He holds Vidit Gujrathi to a draw in their first Classical match of Round 2. This has set up nicely for Game 2.
Arjun Erigaisi starts with a bang! A win to get off the mark. He crushes Bulgarian GM Martin Petrov's defence to get his first points. All he needs is a draw in Game 2 tomorrow to qualify for Round 3.
Temur Kuybokarov is showing some really good defence against last time's finalist, India's R. Praggnanandhaa. After 35 moves, the position is quite equal with very little to play for.
Although the position is round about equal, Gukesh is tightening the screws as far as the time pressure is concerned. Kazybek Nogerbek is left with just a little over 2 minutes and has to make 8 moves to reach time control. Gukesh has 10 minutes.
Surya Shekar Ganguly has also been beaten. Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave wrapped up the game in 37 moves to start his campaign with a win with white pieces.
The star of the opening round, IM Aronyak Ghosh, who had beaten Polish GM Mateusz Bartel in the opening round, failed to stand tall against Levon Aronian. All it took the American-Armenian GM just 30 moves to get the better of Aronyak. The Indian IM will need to win Game 2 on demand to enforce tiebreaks.
A draw to start things off for American Grandmaster Hans Niemann. He ended his game with Italian GM Lorenzo Lodici in 43 moves via threefold repetition.
1. Nf3 d5
2. c4 e6
3. g3 Nf6
4. Bg2 d4
5. 0-0 Nc6
6. d3 Bc5
7. Nbd2 0-0
8. Nb3 Be7
9. h3 e5
10. e3 dxe3
11. Bxe3 a5
12. d4 exd4
13. Nbxd4 Nxd4
14. Bxd4 Nd7
15. Qb3 Bf6
16. Rad1 Re8
17. Be3 Qe7
18. Rfe1 Qf8
19. Qc2 Ra6
20. Nd4 Be5
Greek Grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis, who beat Divya Deshmukh in the previous round, is up against another Indian, this time Nihal Sarin.
The Indian is pushed against the wall with just nine minutes left on his clock. However, it could also be a blessing in disguise for Nihal, who thrives in short time control. Interesting match to follow.
Early result coming in: Two India vs Russia (FIDE) clashes end in a draw. Diptayan Ghosh and Ian Nepomniachtchi ended their clash with threefold repetition.
The match between GM Pentala Harikrishna and Arseniy Nesterov also ended in a quiet draw.
Gukesh seems to have a promising position after 16 moves against Nogerbek. The engines are favouring him, showing a +1.0 advantage. With White's rooks connected, an active queen and a dark-squared bishop and free space to manoeuvre has resulting in Gukesh having this position.
Former FIDE Grand Swiss winner and Candidates' player Vidit Gujrathi is pitted against "Messi of chess" Faustino Oro of Argentina. Oro had beaten Croatia's Ante Brkic in tiebreaks in the opening round.
Vidit has white pieces but already is looking under some pressure as he is down to 35 minutes after just 11 moves. Oro, meanwilhe, has more than an hour.
The top boards -- Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa -- all three of them have almost identical time left on the clock. The three Indians have just a little less than an hour left on their clock. Mind you, the time control is 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 minutes will be added.
After making the first ceremonial move on the Gukesh vs Nogerbek board, Goa CM Pramod Sawant took a closer look at the games in the company of five-time World Champion, Viswanathan Anand.
- Pic Credit: Amit Kamath
Amit Kamath from the venue: Today, with Goa CM Pramod Sawant attending to make the first move, the playing hall was packed with at least 500 people, including local media and the fans eager to catch the first glimpse of Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Co. But despite that, you could hear a pin drop in the other end of the playing hall. What was unusual was Anand and the CM walking into the middle of the playing hall for a closer look at the boards. Anand was seen whispering explanations to Sawant during the games.
Amit Kamath from the venue: Meanwhile, the crown king of flash at chess tournaments, Levon Aronian, is looking as colourful as usual. Especially in comparison to his opponent from India, IM Aronyak Ghosh. Yesterday in an interview with The Indian Express, when he was asked if he would consider forsaking his traditional shirts for something with a more Goan vibe, Aronian had smiled and replied, "For sure." So expect that in some days as well.
Unlike most of the top players, Aronian was one of the first to come to Goa. Five-time world champion Vishy Anand, even alluded to Aronian's love for Goa in his press conference with the Goa CM Pramod Sawant, when he said: "Levon has already been on the beach for a week."
Amit Kamath from the venue: And Nepo's compatriot Daniil Dubov also turns up rocking some Ballenciaga merch.
Amit Kamath from the venue: Pretty interesting sartorial choices from the players on display here today. It's the first time we're getting a glimpse of the top 50 seeds in the tournament. Especially this little number from the two-time world championship contender Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Interesting scenes here. Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko is in action in Goa as well. The former World Championship finalist is not an active player anymore and focuses on commentary and training. His trainee and protege, Vincent Keymer, is one of the top boards of the event, as both are fighting for the same title.
Italian Game for Arjun, who has Black pieces against Bulgaria's Martin Petrov. Both players have round about equal time left on the clock after the first 10 moves.
Appears like Praggnanandhaa is in his opening preparation as he still has over 1 hour and 25 minutes out of his 1 hr 30 minutes. Both players have developed their minor pieces and gone for kingside castling. The first exchange took place on the 12th move when Praggnanandhaa took a pawn on c5 and his opponent, Australia's Temur Kuybokarov, instantly took back.
The game started with Symmetrical Variation of the Queen's Pawn Game but quickly transposed to Bogo-Indian Defense.
1. Nf3 d5
2. c4 e6
3. g3 Nf6
4. Bg2 d4
5. 0-0 Nc6
6. d3 Bc5
7. Nbd2 0-0
8. Nb3 Be7
9. h3 e5
10. e3 dxe3
Gukesh opts for the English Opening against Nogerbek. He starts by developing his knight to f3, which was met with d5. Gukesh then offers his c-flie pawn, pushes it to c4, but instead Nogerbek plays e6. Gukesh responds with g3 and Nogerbek develops his minor pieces -- knight to f6.
The battle between World Champion D. Gukesh and 2024 Junior World Champion Kazybek Nogerbek has begun, with Goa CM Pramod Sawant making the first ceremonial move. And with that, we are underway for the second round.
The FIDE World Cup 2025 Round 2 will be streamed live on the FIDE YouTube + Chess.com as well as Chessbase. You can follow all the live updates as live blog in The Indian Express website.
The FIDE World Cup 2025 Round 2 will take place from Nov 4 to 6 (including tie-breakers), followed by Round 3 from Nov 7-9 (including tie-breakers). Then there’ll be Round 4 from Nov 11 to 13 (including tie-breakers) and round 5 from Nov 14-16 (including tie-breakers). The knockouts start with the quarterfinals scheduled to take place on Nov 17-19 (including tie-breakers), followed by the semifinals from 21-23 (including tie-breakers). The final will take place from Nov 24 to 26 (including tie-breakers).
GM D Gukesh (2752) vs GM Kazybek Nogerbek (KAZ) 2543
GM Arjun Erigaisi (2773) vs GM Martin Petrov (BUL) 2540
GM R Praggnanandhaa (2771) vs GM Temur Kuybokarov (AUS) 2535
GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2573) vs GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA) 2737
GM Diptayan Ghosh (2573) vs GM Ian Nepomniachtchi (FID) 2732
IM Ghosh Aronyak (2514) vs GM Levon Aronian (USA) 2722
GM Santosh Gujrathi Vidit (2716) vs IM Faustino Oro (ARG) 2509
GM Venkataraman Karthik (2579) vs GM Chithambaram Vr. Aravindh (IND) 2711
GM Chithambaram Vr. Aravindh (2711) vs GM Venkataraman Karthik (IND) 2579
GM Sarin Nihal (2700) vs GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (GRE) 2583
GM Pentala Harikrishna (2697) vs GM Arseniy Nesterov (FID) 2584
GM Murali Karthikeyan (2662) vs GM Pouya Idani (IRI) 2601
GM Pa Iniyan (2599) vs GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen (CZE) 2664
GM S L Narayanan (2617) vs GM Nikita Vitiugov (ENG) 2654
GM Pranesh M (2630) vs GM Dmitrij Kollars (GER) 2642
GM Pranav V (2641) vs GM Aryan Tari (NOR) 2631
GM Raunak Sadhwani (2641) vs GM Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM) 2633
Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Day 4 of the FIDE World Cup 2025 happening in Arpora, Goa. On Tuesday, Game 1 of Round 2 will take place, where a total of 128 players, including 17 Indians, will feature. The round is important as all top 50-seeded players have returned after receiving byes for the opening round.
The likes of D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R. Praggnanandhaaa, Vincent Keymer, Levon Aronian, Wesley So and Anish Giri will be in action today so stay tuned as we bring you all the live action straight from Goa.
IM Aronyak Ghosh outlasts Polish GM over six-game marathon; 17 Indians in Round 2
International master Aronyak Ghosh defeated Mateusz Bartel in a six-game marathon on Monday to be one of 17 Indians in the second round of the FIDE World Cup.
The contest included two classical games, two with 15 minutes on the clock and two more games with 10 minutes. The Indian IM’s victory over Bartel sets up a clash with Levon Aronian. The other significant result of the day was IM Faustino Oro defeating Croatian grandmaster Ante Brkic in a battle lasting eight games. Oro will now play India’s Vidit Gujrathi in the second round.
