India’s GM SL Narayanan, GM Diptayan Ghosh and IM Aronyak advanced to the second round of the FIDE World Cup after winning their tie-break games on Monday.
GM Lalith Babu and GM Raja Rithvik fought hard for survival in all the four rapid games but were eliminated as the tie-break went into the blitz section, with the duo, losing both their games.
With 20 tie-break games, there was plenty of drama, excitement and inaccuracies played under faster time controls. Those who held onto their nerves and game were rewarded while it was heartbreak for others as they exited the tournament.
12-year-old sensation IM Oro Faustino of Argentina, the youngest player in this tournament knocked out higher rated GM Ante Brkic of Croatia.
Narayanan and Diptayan were on fire and scored victories in both their rapid games of the first set to advance to the second round.
IM Aronyak defied all odds to defeat higher rated GM Mateusz Bartel of Poland in the second set of rapid tiebreaks, winning 2-0 to storm into the second round. The first set of tie break resulted in a 1-1 deadlock.
GM Pranav Venkatesh, GM Raunak Sadhwani, GM Pranesh M, GM Iniyan Pa, GM Karthik Venkataraman and GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly had already advanced to the second round after two classical games. The top guns of chess, 50 of them, including 8 Indians are directly seeded to the second round.
Incidentally, 17 Indians will feature in the second round of the World Cup, the highest ever.
World Champion Dommaraju Gukesh arrived in Goa on Monday and will be in action from the second round. R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Gujrathi, Arvind Chitambaram, Nihal Sarin Pentala Harikrishna and Murali Karthikeyan are the other players, who will enter the arena on Tuesday.
The highly experienced Levon Aronian, who is the only player in the fray to have won the World Cup twice, Anish Giri, who recently staked a berth to the Candidates 2026 by winning the Grand Swiss and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the two-time World Championship Challenger, are amongst the overseas players joining from the second round.
Amongst the younger lot, 20-year-old Vincent Keymer has been the most impressive player in the last few months and is the fourth highest rated player in the world.
Round 1 Tie-break pairings of Indians: GM SL Narayanan bt IM Steven Rojas Salas (PER) 2-0; GM Lalit Babu lt to GM Max Warmerdam (NED) (1-1)(1-1) (0-2); IM Aronyak Ghosh bt GM Mateusz Bartel (POL) (1-1) (2-0)- 4-2; GM Diptayan Ghosh bt GM Xiongjian Peng (CHN) 2-0; GM Raja Rithvik R lost to GM Kazybek Nogerbek (KAZ) (1-1)(1-1) (0-2).