FIDE World Cup 2025: Divya faces tough task after losing opening game; Indians have mixed day
The big stars will descend on this North Goan village only a couple of days later, but the opening day of the chess World Cup didn’t suffer from a lack of excitement, nevertheless. And in action were some big players from the past and a few for the future.
There was, of course, a lot of focus on the lone female player in the field of 206. Divya Deshmukh, however, didn’t have a particularly great day. The surprise winner of the women’s World Cup was given a wild entry for this event, but she lost her opening game to Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis of Greece.
She has a chance to bounce back, though, but it may not be easy: she has to win with black pieces in the second game on Sunday, and then the tie-breaker. The 19-year-old from Nagpur wasn’t the only Indian who had a difficult first day. Neelash Saha, Aronyak Ghosh, Himal Gusain and G.B. Harshvardhan all lost.
Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Mendonca, S.L. Narayanan, Karthik Venkataraman and Diptayan Ghosh had to settle for draws with their lesser-rated rivals. There were wins for their fellow-Indians V. Pranav, M. Pranesh and Surya Shekhar Ganguly. Those four need only a draw in the second game to move into the second round.
Among the day’s notable winners were Vasyl Ivanchuk of Ukraine and Michael Adams of England, who were ranked No. 2 and No. 4 in the world before. The two Turkish prodigies, Yagiz Erdogmus and Ediz Gurel, both won their games, while the 12-year-old Argentine Faustino Oro held the higher-rated Ante Brkic of Croatia to a draw.
Important results (First round):
Nagi Abugenda (Lba) lost to Yagiz Erdogmus (Tur); Jeffrey Xiong (USA) bt Li Yiheng (Hkg); Qin Oscar Shu Xuan (Nzl) lost to Maxim Rodshtein (Isr); Vladislav Artemiev (Rus) bt Heskeil Ndahangwapo (Nam); Alrehaili Ahmed Abdullah (KSA) lost to Michael Adams (Eng); V. Pranav bt Ala Eddine Boulrens (Alg); Raunak Sadhwani drew with Daniel Barrish (SA), Jaloliddin Ilkhomi (Tjk) 0 lost to Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb); M. Pranesh bt Satbek Akhmedinov (Kaz); Leon Mendonca drew with Wang Shixu (Chn); Steven Rojas (Per) drew with S.L. Narayanan; Divya Deshmukh lost to Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre); Pa. Iniyan bt Dylan Isidro Berdayes Ason (Cub); Georg Meier (Uru) bt Neelash Saha; G.B. Harshavardhan lost to Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur); Mateusz Bartel (Pol) bt Aronyak Ghosh; Mohammad Fahad Rahman (Ban) lost to Vasil Ivanchuk (Ukr); Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz) drew with R. Raja Rithvik; Peng Xiongjian (Chn) drew with Diptayan Ghosh; Surya Shekhar Ganguly bt Ahmad Ahmadzada (Aze); Max Warmerdam (Ned) drew with M.R. Lalith Babu; Roberto García Pantoja (Cub) drew with Karthik Venkataraman.
Published on Nov 01, 2025