Arjun Erigaisi
Credit: FIDE Chess
Arjun Erigaisi missed a few promising continuations against Wei Yi of China in the second game of the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup 2025 in Goa. The game ultimately petered into a draw and 22-year-old Erigaisi will have to raise his game under faster time controls in the tie-break on Wednesday to advance to the semifinals.
Erigaisi is India’s only hope remaining in the tournament since the other 23 Indians in fray have been eliminated.
The encounters between Martinez Alcantara (Mexico) versus Javokhir Sindarov and Andrey Esipenko versus Sam Shankland also ended in a draw without much fanfare. All these players will feature in the tie-breaks to decide who advances to the semifinal
Alexander Donchenko of Germany, after losing the first game on Monday to Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan, needed to win on demand for survival on Tuesday. To give credit to the German, he toiled for long to try and convert an equal-looking position but had to settle for a draw after 57. Nodirbek is the first player to advance to the semifinals of this eight-round knockout event.
Quite clearly, pressure is taking a toll on the players as most of them have adopted safety first at all cost attitude, the reluctance for better-looking but risky possibilities baffling a few but not surprising most. Interestingly, all these eight players are trying to stake their claim on the three Candidates spots on offer here and make their debut in the eight-player Candidates tournament to decide the challenger for World Champion D Gukesh.
In a Queen’s Gambit Declined game, Arjun Wielding Whites uncorked a new knight move on the 7th turn, deviating from theory quite early on. On the 19th turn, long think by Erigaisi indicated that he was not on home turf but pondering long on three moves. Erigaisi managed to resolve his issues on board to gain advantage.
Erigaisi either missed or decided against a promising continuation on the 24th turn and the game against Wei appeared to head towards a deadlock. Wei’s Queen infiltrated into Erigaisi’s territory but the Indian had things under control and peace was signed on the 32nd turn.
Round 6 Game 2 results: Martinez Alcantara (Mex) drew with Javokhir Sindarov (UZB); 1-1; Arjun Erigaisi (Ind) drew with Wei Yi (CHN) 1-1; Andrey Esipenko drew with Sam Shankland (USA) 1-1; Alexander Donchenko (Ger) drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB) 0.5-1.5.