Chess World Cup, Round 2: Praggnanandhaa, Vidit survive tie-breaker as 10 Indians advance
He began as one of the strongest favourites, but he was virtually just one move away from an early exit.
Third seed R. Praggnanandhaa, however, survived that scare — thanks in small measure to his opponent’s terrible blunder — to win a gruelling tie-breaker over Uzbekistan-born Australian Temur Kuybokarov at Resort Rio in Arpora and enter the third round of the FIDE World Cup.
Like him, S.L. Narayanan also progressed by winning both games in the day’s third set of matches against his higher-rated Russian rival Nikita Vitiugov.
Vidit Gujrathi, V. Pranav and M. Pranesh had easier passages into the third round, winning their first set of tie-breakers against Faustino Oro of Argentina, Aryan Tari of Norway and Dmitrij Kollars of Germany, respectively.
Vidit thus ended the campaign of the tournament’s youngest player. The 12-year-old Oro is already one of the rising stars of the game.
Vidit Gujrathi in action against Faustino Oro of Argentina, who was the youngest player in the ongoing FIDE World Cup.
| Photo Credit:
FIDE
Vidit Gujrathi in action against Faustino Oro of Argentina, who was the youngest player in the ongoing FIDE World Cup.
| Photo Credit:
FIDE
His older rival admitted it wasn’t easy. Both the classical games had been drawn. “He is special because at the age of 12 he is playing like a seasoned player,” Vidit said. “It feels good to qualify for the next round and it was not an easy match.”
There was, however, disappointment for Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and Karthikeyan Murali, who all lost.
So, out of the eight Indians to play the tie-breakers, five won and they will join five of their compatriots in the third round. D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, P. Harikrishna, Diptayan Ghosh, and Karthik Venkataraman had qualified on Wednesday itself, winning their matches in the classical format.
Nihal’s defeat was indeed a big setback for the host. The 22nd seed lost the first tie-breaker and could only draw in the second, as Greece’s Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis proved a thorn in the flesh for the Indians; he had beaten Divya Deshmukh in the first round.
The highest seed to crash out on this day was the American Hans Niemann. The tenth seed was beaten by Italy’s Lorenzo Lodici, whose win in the first tie-breaker game proved enough to book an unexpected ticket to the third round.
Important results (second round):
R. Praggnanandhaa bt Temur Kuybokarov (Aus) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0; Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) bt Dennis Makhnev (Kaz) 1.5-0.5; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) bt Gergely Kantor (Hun) 2-0; Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) bt Hans Niemann (USA) 1.5-0.5; Vidit Gujrathi bt Faustino Oro (Arg) 1.5-0.5; Yu Yangyi (Chn) bt Felix Blohberge (Aut) 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre) bt Nihal Sarin 1.5-0.5; V. Pranav bt Aryan Tari (Nor) 1.5-0.5; M. Pranesh bt Dmitrij Kollars (Ger) 2-0; Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur) bt Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 1.5-0.5; Daniil Dubo (Rus) bt Bai Jinshi (Chn) 1-1, 2-0; Radoslav Wojtaszek (Pol) bt Maxime Lagarde (Fra) 1.5-0.5; S.L. Narayanan bt Nikita Vitiugov (Rus) ) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0; Pouya Idani (Ira) bt Karthikeyan Murali; 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Samuel Sevian (USA) bt Tin Jingya (Sgp) 2-0; Daniel Dardha (Bel) bt Grigoriy Oparin (USA) 1.5-0.5; Vladislav Artemeiv (Rus) bt Haik Martirosyan (Arm) 1.5-0.5; (Rus) bt Nils Grandelius (Swe) bt Etienne Barcot (Fra) 1.5-0.5; Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb) bt Maksim Chigaev (Esp) 2-0; Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm) bt Raunak Sadhwani 2-0.
Published on Nov 06, 2025