FIDE World Cup 2025: Erigaisi, Harikrishna through; Pragg knocked out

Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna knocked out Peter Leko and Nils Grandelius in the fourth round tie-break to enter the fifth round of the FIDE World Cup 2025 being played at Resort Rio in Goa.

In the biggest and most sensational upsets of the tournament, hot favourites R Praggnanandhaa and world No. 4 Vincent Keymer were knocked out of the tournament by former World Blitz Champion Daniil Dubov and Andrey Esipenko respectively. This is a big blow for India as Pragg, a finalist at the last edition of the World Cup was a firm favourite this time.

India, with an unprecedented 24 players amongst the 206 in fray at the ongoing FIDE World Cup 2025, have just two players advancing to the pre-quarters or the last 16. Harikrishna, at 39 years, had started as the oldest player in fray but has appeared comfortable in most of his games.

Erigaisi is one of the strong contenders for the title and has paced himself well in the event. Erigaisi will face two-time World Cup winner Levon Aronian in the fifth round while Harikrishna will take on giant-killer GM Jose Martinez Alcantara.

In other important results another Elo2700 plus players, Richard Rapport and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave were shocked by Sam Shankland and Alexey Grebnev respectively.

In a Spanish game, Erigaisi, playing Black, repulsed Leko’s early aggression on his King-side after the players had castled on opposite flanks and brought home the point after 40 moves.

After losing the first game, Leko had to win on demand for survival and it reflected in his choice of play -- aggression from the beginning stages itself, opting for the Nimzo Indian defence. Leko steamrolled his pawns on the King-side after castling but Erigaisi castled on the opposite side and in a neat display of positional chess, improved his position with every piece exchange.

En-route Erigaisi grabbed a couple of pawns and Leko threw in the towel on the 57th turn. "I am very happy. The tiebreak went well. The classical games were pretty intense and I had a slight advantage in the second game but he showed his class to draw. But in tiebreak, I was pretty much in control."

After the first game ended in deadlock, Harikrishna and Nils fought it out in a Scotch game with the Indian positionally better in the middle-game. With precise play Harikrishna enhanced his position and smartly forced the exchange of queens. An error by Nils and Harikrishna with a neat tactical stroke won a rook and the game on the 34th move.

Pragg  had settled for a quick 12 move, uneventful draw in the first Rapid game with the Black pieces with the intention of pressing with the White pieces in the second game. In the second game in an Italian Opening, Pragg lost an exchange of the 39h turn and  the game on the 53rd turn. Pragg has been one of the most impressive Indian on the international circuit and after featuring in the finals in the last edition, he was a strong contender for the title here.  Pragg for some reason was not in good shape throughout this event and had faced elimination quite a few times.

Round 4 tie-break results (Indians unless mentioned): Arjun Erigaisi bt Peter Leko (HUN) 2-0; Daniil Dubov bt R Praggnanandhaa 1.5-0.5; Pentala Harikrishna bt Nils Grandelius (SWE) 1.5-0.5.