Chess World Cup: Wei gets fighting draw against Esipenko; Yakkuboev, Sindarov also share points

Wei Yi stormed out of the playing hall as darkness began to fall on Resort Rio in Goa on Friday.

There were a couple of children waiting for his autograph. He stopped, obliged them, and even bent down to pose for a photograph with a boy. A girl, after clicking the photo, said, beaming, “Congratulations.”

One is not sure if she actually saw how the seventh seed from China managed to get half a point from Andrey Esipenko in the first game of the semifinals at the World Cup, but she was certainly right to congratulate him. It was a superb piece of defending, under time pressure, that answered the questions posed by his Russian rival.

The other semifinal, featuring the two young Uzbeks, Nodirbek Yakubboev and Jovakhir Sindarov, was also drawn.

None of the four players can afford a defeat in the second classical game on Saturday, which will mean losing the semifinal match. However, one could still remain in contention for a place in the Candidates (a win in the playoff for third place would do).

Of course, victory in the semifinals is the easier way. And Esipenko looked the likeliest to take what could have been a crucial lead, and that too with black pieces.

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The Russian faced the French Defence and succeeded in troubling his Chinese rival. But on the 28th move, Wei equalised with a fine bishop move, and continued to find more right ones.

Wei then found the perfect square for his queen on the 31st move to settle the issue more or less. A couple of moves later, the two men agreed to split the point.

There wasn’t as much drama in the other game, in which Yakubboev and Sindarov settled for peace after 30 moves from a Semi-Slav Defence that reached a rook-and-knight ending.

Published on Nov 21, 2025