Indian Chess Stars Shine at FIDE World Cup Amid Thrilling Tie-Breaks

The 42-year-old Ganguly, a former second of five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, knew that his opponent, Ahmed Ahmadzada of Azerbaijan, had to take risks to draw level after losing the opening game. The Indian took control of the match by attacking from his opponent's king side and forced him to resign after just 28 moves, and became the first Indian to advance to the second round, where he will face French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in another two-game matchup.

Karthik, who had drawn his opening game against GM Roberto Garia Pantoja on Saturday, forced his opponent to resign after 39 moves to set up a second-round clash with compatriot GM Aravindh Chithambaram VR.

Also advancing to the next round was Sadhwani. The 19-year-old from Nagpur had managed to draw the opening game against FM Daniel Barrish of South Africa despite making errors. On Sunday, he made no mistakes to clinch a win with black pieces in 39 moves.

While Ganguly, Sadhwani, and Karthik won, 19-year-old Pranesh did not take any unnecessary risk against Kazakhstan's Satbek Akhmedinov and split the point after 36 moves in a rook-pawn endgame.

The FIDE World Cup 2025 is played as a single-elimination knock-out tournament with 206 players from 82 countries vying for the coveted Viswanathan Anand Cup, named after the Indian legend.

Meanwhile, GM Aronyak Ghosh, who lost the first game with black pieces against Bartel, came up with a solid middle game to take the upper hand and then made the advantage count to win in 41 moves, and kept his campaign alive.

Four other Indian players, Raja Rithvik R, Diptayan Ghosh, Lalit Babu MR, and Narayanan SL, will also be taking the rapid route to make it to the next round after they drew their respective games. Rithvik was held to a draw by Kazakhstan's Kazybek Nogerbek in 30 moves in the second game on Sunday, while Diptayan Ghosh, playing white, could not find a way past China's GM Peng Xiongjian after 39 moves.

Meanwhile, wild card entrant Divya Deshmukh's campaign came to an end in the first round after she went down 0:2 against Greek GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis. Having lost the opening game with white pieces, the 19-year-old Women's World Cup champion needed a win to stay alive on Sunday.

She tried her best to get the better of Stamatis but ultimately had to accept defeat in a marathon 73-move game with her opponent's additional pawn in the endgame making the difference.

Indian results (Game 2-Round 1)

GM Pranav V bt Ala Eddine Boulrens (Alg) 2:0; GM Raunak Sadhwani bt FM Daniel Barrish (RSA) 1.5:0.5; M Pranesh bt IM Satbek Akhmedinov (Kaz) 1.5:0.5; GM Karthik Venkataraman bt GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja (Cub) 1.5:0.5; GM Diptayan Ghosh drew with GM Peng Xiongjian (CHN) 1:1; GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly bt GM Ahmad Ahmadzada (AZE) 2:0; GM Iniyan Pa bt GM Dylan Berdayes (Cub) 1.5:0.5; GM Raja Rithvik R drew with Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz) 1:1; IM Aronyak Ghosh drew with GM Mateusz Bartel (Pol) 1:1; GM Lalit Babu MR drew with GM Max Warmerdam (Ned) 1:1; GM Narayanan SL drew with IM Steven Rojas (Per) 1:1; IM Himal Gusain lost to GM Andy Woodward (USA) bt 0:2; IM Harshavardhan GB lost to GM Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur) 0.5:1.5; IM Neelash Saha lost to GM Georg Meier (Uru) 0.5:1.5; GM Leon Luke Mendonca lost to IM Shixu B Wang (Chn) 0.5:1.5; GM Divya Deshmukh lost to GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre) 0:2.

- IANS