FIDE World Cup Round 1, Game 1: 4 Wins, 7 Draws & 5 Losses; How Indians fared in opening round of Goa event

The reigning Women's World Cup champion played White against Greek Grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis.

Indian GM Pranav V and Divya Deshmukh in action during FIDE World Cup 2025 Round 1 Game 1 in Goa. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza/FIDE)

Game 1 of the opening round of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 got underway in Arpora, Goa, on Saturday, where 16 Indians were in action. With the top 50 seeded players having received byes, the centre of attraction in this round was the only female competitor in the 206-player field, Divya Deshmukh.

The reigning Women’s World Cup champion played White against Greek Grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis. Divya got off to a good start but her time management skills on Saturday let her down as she continued to make errors under a severe time crunch and eventually lost the first game of the opening round.

She will have to win on demand on Sunday to enforce a tiebreak. Amongst the Indian winners were Pranav V, Pranesh M, Pa. Iniyan and Surya Shekhar Ganguly. All of them now just need to draw their Game 2 to qualify for Round 2.

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Seven Indians — Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Luke Mendonca, SL Narayanan, Lalith Babu MR, Karthik Venkataraman, Diptayan Ghosh and Rithvik R Raja — ended up playing a draw in their opening games.

Harshavardhan GB, Himal Gusain, Neelash Saha and Aronyak Ghosh were the other four Indians aside from Divya who ended up suffering a loss on Saturday.

FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, Round 1 Game 1: Indian result

Pranav V (2641) 1-0 vs Ala Eddine Boulrens (2214) – WIN
Raunak Sadhwani (2641) ½-½ vs Daniel Barrish (2284) – DRAW
Pranesh M (2630) 1-0 vs Satbek Akhmedinov (2372) – WIN
Leon Luke Mendonca (2620) ½-½ vs Shixu B Wang (2402) – DRAW
S L Narayanan (2617) ½-½ vs Steven Rojas Salas (2413) – DRAW
Pa Iniyan (2599) 1-0 vs Dylan Isidro Berdayes Ason (2453) – WIN
G B Harshavardhan (2476) 0-1 vs Mustafa Yilmaz (2591) – LOSS
Himal Gusain (2476) 0-1 vs Andy Woodward (2557) – LOSS
M R Lalit Babu (2502) ½-½ vs Max Warmerdam (2591) – DRAW
Divya Deshmukh (2498) 0-1 vs Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (2583) – LOSS
Neelash Saha (2466) 0-1 vs Georg Meier (2596) – LOSS
Karthik Venkataraman (2579) ½-½ vs Roberto Garcia Pantoja (2502) – DRAW
Ghosh Aronyak (2514) 0-1 vs Mateusz Bartel (2581) – LOSS
Diptayan Ghosh (2573) ½-½ vs Xiongjian Peng (2521) – DRAW
Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2573) 1-0 vs Ahmad Ahmadzada (2523) – WIN
Rithvik R Raja (2541) ½-½ vs Kazybek Nogerbek (2543) – DRAW

FIDE WORLD CUP 2025 ROUND 1, GAME 1: AS IT HAPPENED

Turkish teenager Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus in action during FIDE World Cup 2025 Round 1 Game 1 in Goa. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza/FIDE)

FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, Round 1 Game 1: Overall Results

Board	White	Result	Black
1	Abugenda, Nagi (1972)	0-1	Erdogmus, Yagiz Kaan (2651)
2	Xiong, Jeffery (2648)	1-0	Li, Yiheng (1994)
3	Qin, Oscar Shu Xuan (2078)	0-1	Rodshtein, Maxim (2647)
4	Artemiev, Vladislav (2646)	1-0	Ndahangwapo, Heskiel (2093)
5	Alrehaili, Ahmed Abdullah S (2109)	0-1	Adams, Michael (2646)
6	Grandelius, Nils (2645)	1-0	Allam, Mohamed (2112)
7	Huh, Isaak (2139)	0-1	Martinez Alcantara, Jose Eduardo (2644)
8	Gledura, Benjamin (2643)	1-0	Amdouni, Zoubaier (2186)
9	Salih, Akar Ali Salih (2212)	0-1	Kollars, Dmitrij (2642)
10	Pranav, V (2641)	1-0	Boulrens, Ala Eddine (2214)
11	Kigigha, Bomo Lovet (2263)	0-1	Donchenko, Alexander (2641)
12	Sadhwani, Raunak (2641)	1/2-1/2	Barrish, Daniel (2284)
13	Ilkhomi, Jaloliddin (2289)	0-1	Vokhidov, Shamsiddin (2640)
14	Svane, Frederik (2638)	1-0	Husbands, Orlando (2291)
15	Efimov, Igor (2331)	0-1	Gurel, Ediz (2634)
16	Chigaev, Maksim (2634)	1-0	Elbilia, Jacques (2332)
17	Kavin, Mohan (2346)	1/2-1/2	Hovhannisyan, Robert (2633)
18	Anton Guijarro, David (2631)	1-0	Silva, David (2347)
19	Manon, Reja Neer (2369)	1/2-1/2	Tari, Aryan (2631)
20	Pranesh, M (2630)	1-0	Akhmedinov, Satbek (2372)
21	Mandizha, Farai (2375)	0-1	Amin, Bassem (2629)
22	Ivic, Velimir (2628)	1-0	Orozbaev, Eldiyar (2375)
23	Mwali, Chitumbo (2392)	0-1	Bacrot, Etienne (2627)
24	Cheparinov, Ivan (2626)	1-0	Cordoba Roa, Angel Gabriel (2392)
25	Cahaya, Satria Duta (2393)	1/2-1/2	Martirosyan, Haik M. (2626)
26	Sargissian, Gabriel (2624)	1-0	Liyanage, Ranindu Dilshan (2401)
27	Thavandiran, Shiyam (2402)	1/2-1/2	Yuffa, Daniil (2621)
28	Mendonca, Leon Luke (2620)	1/2-1/2	Wang, Shixu B (2402)
29	Tran, Thanh Tu (2407)	0-1	Salem, A.R. Saleh (2620)
30	Indjic, Aleksandar (2618)	1-0	Schnaider, Ilan (2413)
31	Rojas Salas, Steven (2413)	1/2-1/2	Narayanan, S (2617)
32	Lagarde, Maxime (2617)	1-0	Amartuvshin, Ganzorig (2415)
33	Mohammad Fahad, Rahman (2416)	0-1	Ivanchuk, Vasyl (2616)
34	Suleymanli, Aydin (2614)	1-0	Laohawirapap, Prin (2417)
35	Divya, Deshmukh (2498)	0-1	Kourkoulos-Arditis, Stamatis (2583)
36	Vazquez, Facundo (2419)	0-1	Svane, Rasmus (2614)
37	Grebnev, Aleksey (2611)	1-0	Quizon, Daniel (2420)
38	Rakotomaharo, Fy Antenaina (2435)	1/2-1/2	Najer, Evgeniy (2613)
39	Dardha, Daniel (2624)	1-0	Banh, Gia Huy (2440)
40	Agibileg, Uurtsaikh (2448)	1-0	Henriquez Villagra, Cristobal (2594)
41	Daneshvar, Bardiya (2598)	1-0	Salinas Herrera, Pablo (2451)
42	Cori Quispe, Kevin Joel (2451)	0-1	Idani, Pouya (2601)
43	Iniyan, Pa (2599)	1-0	Berdayes Ason, Dylan Isidro (2453)
44	Pantsulaia, Levan (2457)	1/2-1/2	Zemlyanskii, Ivan (2586)
45	Meier, Georg (2596)	1-0	Neelash, Saha (2466)
46	Siddharth, Jagadeesh (2467)	1/2-1/2	Cheng, Bobby (2596)
47	Cori, Jorge (2594)	1/2-1/2	Ansat, Aldiyar (2470)
48	Harshavardhan, G B (2476)	0-1	Yilmaz, Mustafa (2591)
49	Woodward, Andy (2557)	1-0	Gusain, Himal (2476)
50	Fawzy, Adham (2476)	0-1	Bai, Jinshi (2590)
51	Adly, Ahmed (2589)	1/2-1/2	Grigoryan, Karen H. (2481)
52	Bellahcene, Bilel (2485)	1/2-1/2	Huschenbeth, Niclas (2587)
53	Abasov, Nijat (2587)	1-0	Suyarov, Mukhammadzokhid (2482)
54	Avila Pavas, Santiago (2490)	0-1	Motylev, Alexander (2586)
55	Neiksans, Arturs (2585)	1/2-1/2	Suleymenov, Alisher (2491)
56	Atabayev, Saparmyrat (2494)	1/2-1/2	Nesterov, Arseniy (2584)
57	Tin, Jingyao (2583)	1/2-1/2	Lashkin, Jegor (2497)
58	Warmerdam, Max (2591)	1/2-1/2	Lalit, Babu M R (2502)
59	Garcia Pantoja, Roberto (2502)	1/2-1/2	Karthik, Venkataraman (2579)
60	Brkic, Ante (2578)	1/2-1/2	Oro, Faustino (2509)
61	Parligras, Mircea-Emilian (2510)	0-1	Fier, Alexandr (2577)
62	Lupulescu, Constantin (2577)	1/2-1/2	Blohberger, Felix (2513)
63	Ghazarian, Kirk (2513)	0-1	Petrov, Nikita (2576)
64	Bartel, Mateusz (2581)	1-0	Aronyak, Ghosh (2514)
65	Galaviz Medina, Sion Radamantys (2515)	1/2-1/2	Supi, Luis Paulo (2575)
66	Jobava, Baadur (2590)	1-0	Cardoso Cardoso, Jose Gabriel (2518)
67	Peng, Xiongjian (2521)	1/2-1/2	Ghosh, Diptayan (2573)
68	Ganguly, Surya Shekhar (2573)	1-0	Ahmadzada, Ahmad (2523)
69	Samadov, Read (2523)	0-1	Lodici, Lorenzo (2560)
70	Kantor, Gergely (2559)	1-0	Rodrigue-Lemieux, Shawn (2524)
71	Makhnev, Denis (2525)	1-0	Flores, Diego (2558)
72	Piorun, Kacper (2557)	1/2-1/2	Lobanov, Sergei (2526)
73	Velten, Paul (2530)	0-1	Kovalev, Vladislav (2557)
74	Bogner, Sebastian (2555)	1/2-1/2	Stremavicius, Titas (2531)
75	Maksimovic, Bojan (2532)	1/2-1/2	Can, Emre (2552)
76	Subelj, Jan (2545)	1/2-1/2	Kuybokarov, Temur (2535)
77	Petrov, Martin (2540)	1/2-1/2	Mekhitarian, Krikor Sevag (2545)
78	Nogerbek, Kazybek (2543)	1/2-1/2	Raja, Rithvik R (2541)