FIDE World Cup 2025: Praggnanandhaa survives scare; Arjun, Karthik, Harikrishna also draw first game of Rd 4
Arjun Erigaisi will start as the favourite against veteran Hungarian Peter Leko, while R Praggnanandhaa faces the inventive Daniil Dubov.
Indian Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa played out solid draws while P Harikrishna wriggled out of a difficult situation to head into a tie-break in the fourth round of the Chess World Cup, in Panjim on Wednesday.
FIDE World Cup: Arjun storms into quarterfinals of the World Cup
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi will take on an in-form Levon Aronian of Armenia, while P Harikrishna will have to tackle giant-killer Jose Eduardo Martinez Alacantara of Mexico in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Cup in Panaji, Goa.
India's hopes in the FIDE World Cup 2025 will depend solely on second seed GM Arjun Erigaisi after GM P Harikrishna went down in the fifth round tiebreak against GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara in Panaji, Goa, on Sunday, as per a release from FIDE.
Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi and P Harikrishna had another good day as they sent veteran Peter Leko of Hungary and Swede Nils Grandelius packing in the fourth-round tiebreaker at the Chess World Cup, in Panaji on Thursday.
With just 16 players out of 206 participants that started the event remaining in the fray, most of the players decided against taking undue risk and decided to wait for the next game.
Harikrishna continued his success story with the seasoned Grandmaster, who famously assisted Gukesh in the World Championship title match, showcasing his skills as a brilliant attacker.
Vaishali knew she had to win to remain in contention and her approach right from the start was in sync with the requirement of the tournament situation.
Magnus Carlsen concluded the first nine rounds with an impressive 6.5 points out of a possible 9.
Uzbekistan's young grandmaster Abdusattorov Nodirbek emerged sole leader in the open section of the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid tournament in Kolkata on Wednesday.
Magnus Carlsen of Norway delivered a flawless performance on the final day to clinch the title in the Open section
Rameshbabu Vaishali won the women's qualifier scoring 9.5 points out of 11 to advance to the quarter-finals of the World Blitz Championship.
Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi's decision to share the World Blitz Championship title for the first time in history sparked widespread criticism.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi prevailed over Russia's Daniil Dubov in the third round to become the sole leader with 2.5 points in the prestigious Tata Steel Masters chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
Gukesh Dommaraju played black but managed to hold on for a gutsy draw to split points in the Prague Masters Chess tournament.
The upGrad Mumba Masters climbed to third place, while the Titans improved their position from the bottom of the scoreboard.
Anand, who first made it to the World's top-10 in July 1991, has remained India's top-ranked player in all published lists since January 1987.
16-year old Praggnanandhaa halted his three-match losing streak to shock the higher-rated Vidit Gujrathi
Vidit Gujrathi suffers first defeat
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand hailed the young GM's achievement.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi held World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen to a draw in the 11th round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament
The team of Chingari Gulf Titans stunned Mumba Masters by 12:3, while SG Alpine Warriors were upstaged by Triveni Continental Kings
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi drew with Richard Rapport of Hungary in the ninth round to be in joint third place with 5.5 points in the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
India's Vidit Gujrathi drew with Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland to take his tally to four points after the sixth round of Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022.
The other five games, hard fought, were drawn. World No.1 Magnus Carlsen and Andrey Esipenko trail the leaders by half a point.
The second day of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League witnessed the debut of Magnus Carlsen, the strongest chess player in the world. C
The stage is set for the inaugural edition of the Global Chess League to get underway in Dubai.
Gujrathi settled for a draw against Russia's Andrey Esipenko to stay in the lead with three points
Both Harikrishna and Carlsen drew all their four games on the opening day of the tournament as matches ended late on Saturday.
Anand has been trying to play very complicated positions and the sixth round was no different.
The day produced four decisive games and it was again the youngsters who provided most of the entertainment.
World rapid champion Viswanathan Anand continued his fine run in the faster version of the game and annexed the Tal Memorial rapid chess title in Moscow after an easy final round draw against Boris Gelfand of Israel.
Anand moved to joint sixth spot with 2.5 points on a day that saw Firouzja Alireza scoring a sensational victory over super-solid Anish Giri of Holland.
Carlsen had previously indicated he would not consider the record truly broken until after two more games as he was not prepared to count two wins he had in the Norwegian league.
A title match requires months of preparation and pulling out of other events, putting together a team of seconds, etc. Carlsen just says he lacks the motivation to do this again.
Vaishali, sister of the Indian chess prodigy and GM R Praggnanandhaa, scored impressive victories over Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) and Russia's Valentina Gunina on the opening day of the Blitz championship.
Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand squandered away a good start and could just end Day 1 on a fifty percent score after the end of the fifth round of World rapid chess championship in Berlin.
Anand played the Italian game with white pieces but could get little out of opening against Vituigov.
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