Chess World Cup: Arjun draws first quarterfinal game against China’s Wei Yi

Fifty-nine minutes. Thirty-one moves.

That was all it took, Arjun Erigaisi, to draw the first game of the quarterfinals against China’s Wei Yi at the Chess World Cup at Resort Rio in Goa.

After the easy draw with black pieces, the second seed now must be wanting to give his best shot at a win – and thus a place in the semifinals – with white pieces in their second classical game.

The day’s two other games were drawn – between Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan and Jose Martinez Alcantara of Mexico; and Sam Shankland of the United States and Andrey Esipenko of Russia.

That left Nodirbek Yakkuboev as the day’s only winner.

The Uzbek player beat Alexander Donchenko of Germany with white pieces, and he now needs just a draw in the second game to extend his dream run for another round. It is, of course, a must-win game for his rival if he wants to force a tie-break (a player needs to score at least 1.5 points from the two classical games to advance to the next round without playing the nerve-wracking tie-breaks of much shorter time controls).

Time wasn’t a problem on the top board in Game 1. Even less so for Arjun, as he finished with more time than he started with.

He made his opening moves without any fuss, against the seventh seed, showing the kind of preparation he has had for this tournament.

It was a Closed variation of Ruy Lopez, and the game tilted towards a draw pretty soon. Several pieces, including the queen, were exchanged back-to-back by the 18th move. It came down to a completely equal rook-and-pawn ending, and the two men signed the inevitable peace soon.

Peace was hardly there in the day’s only deciding game: it had been a struggle right through for Donchenko, playing from the black side of a King’s Indian Defence as he found himself in a shaky position because of his inaccurate moves early on.

Yakkuboev took advantage of that, kept on improving his position, gaining material, and cornered the hapless black king, forcing the German to resign on the 44th move.

Published on Nov 17, 2025