Arjun, Praggnanandhaa, Harikrishna head to tiebreak in fourth round after drawing both games
No Indian won — a rare sight in chess these days, but that was very much the case for the last two days. Two Indians, in fact, were knocked out of the Chess World Cup at Resort Rio.
But both V. Pranav and Karthik Venkataraman could head home with their heads held high; they were beaten by stronger rivals, Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan and Le Quang Liem of Vietnam, respectively.
They have done exceedingly well to have reached the round of 32: Pranav had started as the 60th seed and Karthik as the 109th. Three Indians now remain in contention, but to extend their stay, they will have to win their tie-breakers on Thursday.
The host’s best hopes, Arjun Erigaisi and R. Praggnanandhaa, seeds No. 2 and 3, were held to draws by Hungarian Peter Leko and Russian Daniil Dubov. The other Indian, P. Harikrishna, seeded 24th, also split the point with a lesser-rated player — Nils Grandelius of Sweden.
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On the 16 boards, there were just three decisive results, the other winner being Alexander Donchenko, who overcame Matthias Bluebaum in an all-German battle.
He, like Le Quang and Yakubboev, made it to the fifth round without having to play the tie-breakers.
Also making it to the last 16 were former champion Levon Aronian of Armenia and the Mexican on a great run here — Jose Martínez Alcantara. After winning on Tuesday, they needed only to draw in Game 2.
About his 35-move draw with Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland, the articulate Aronian said, “My aim was to get the draw, so it was more like dribbling time out in the NBA.”
Alcantara’s reaction was a bit more prosaic after his draw with Alexey Sarana of Serbia.
“I want to thank my supporters from Mexico and Peru, for whom I used to play earlier.”
The results (fourth round):
Alexander Donchenko (Ger) 1.5 bt Matthias Bluebaum (Ger) 0.5; V. Pranav 0.5 lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb); Arjun Erigaisi 1 drew with Peter Leko (Hun); P. Harikrishna 1 drew with Nils Grandelius (Swe); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol) 1 drew with Levon Aronian (USA) 1.5; Shant Sargsyan (Arm) 1 drew with Frederik Svane (Ger) 1; Richard Rapport (Hun) 1 drew with Sam Shankland (USA) 1; Aleksey Grebnev (Rus) 1 drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 1; Daniil Dubov (Rus) 1 drew with R. Praggnanandhaa 1; Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) 1drew with Samuel Sevian (USA) 1; Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) 1 drew with Awonder Liang (USA) 1; Jose Martínez Alcantara (Mex) 1.5 drew with Alexey Sarana (Srb) 0.5; Parham Maghsoodloo (Ira) 1 drew with Wei Yi (Chn) 1; Karthik Venkataraman 0.5 lost to Le Quang Liem (Vie) 1.5; Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) 1 drew with Yu Yangyi (Chn) 1; (Uzb); Vincent Keymer (Ger) 1 drew with Andrey Esipenko (Rus) 1.
Published on Nov 12, 2025