Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Goa
The ouster of D Gukesh in the third round has been the highlight of the FIDE World Cup so far. The world champion had not been in the best of form of late, but this early exit was unexpected. Aravindh Chithambaram, Vidit Gujrathi and Nihal Sarin also suffered shock defeats. All of them were tipped to get beyond the third round at least, if not reach the quarterfinals.
On a brighter note for India, Arjun Erigaisi and P Harkrishna have been excellent. Erigaisi has won three of his four games and drew the other one when he didn’t have to push for victory. Harikrishna has also given a good account of himself. His win in the second game of the second round against Russia’s Arsenic Nesterov is regarded as the performance of the event. R Praggnanandhaa, too, seems to be getting into his elements. There are 5 Indians in the Round of 32 starting on Tuesday. Here is a wrap of the Indian campaign so far…
Round 1
Of the 16 Indians in this round, 10 made progress. Most of them were pitted against opponents rated lower than them. They didn’t make mistakes in converting their supremacy into wins. The shocker from the Indian point of view was the ouster of Leon Luke Mendonca. With a rating of 2620, the lone Goan participant was way ahead of his Chinese rival B Shixu Wang, rated 2402. But he lost in the first two games itself, even before going to the tie-breakers. Divya Deshmukh’s defeat was another highlight. The lone woman participant lost to Greece’s Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis.
Winners: R Pranav, Raunak Sadhwani, M Pranesh, SL Narayanan, PA Iniyan, MR Lalith Babu, Karthik Venkataraman, Aronyak Ghosh, Diptayan Ghosh, Surya Shekhar Ganguly.
Knocked out: Leon Luke Mendonca, Divya Deshmukh, Neelash Saha, GB Harshavardhan, Himal Gusain, R Rithwik Raja.
Round 2
The top 50 received byes into this round. Seven were Indians, making it 17 from the country in the round of 128. Diptayan Ghosh caused the first major tremor of the event by eliminating Ian Nepomniachtchi. The GM from Kolkata drew the first game and stunned the Russian with black in the second. The two-time Candidates champion was so frustrated that he took the first flight out of Goa.
There were big Indian casualties as well. First was Aravindh Chithambaram – the world No. 28 was shown the door by Karthik Venkataraman. With a rating of 2579, the latter is way below Aravindh, who is 2713 and was world No. 11 in April. Nihal was another player rated 2700 or above who crashed out. He lost to Kourkoulos-Arditis, the Greek who beat Divya in the first round. Raunak Sadhwani’s ouster was another talking point. In a clash of two equally-strong rivals, Sadhwani lost to Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia.
The ‘Big Five’ of Gukesh, Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, Harikrishna and Vidit won. While Pragg came close to elimination against Temur Kuybokarov of Australia and just about managed to win in the third set of tie-breakers, Vidit defeated Argentine 12-year-old Faustino Oro.
Winners: D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Diptayan Ghosh, Vidit Gujrathi, Karthik Venkataraman, P Harikrishna, S Narayanan, M Pranesh, V Pranav.
Knocked out: Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Aronyak Ghosh, Aravindh Chithambaram, Nihal Sarin, PA Iniyan, Murali Karthikeyan, Raunak Sadhwani.
Round 3
Of the 10 Indians in the fray in round of 64, five advanced to the next stage. The biggest news was the elimination of Gukesh. The world champion lost to German youngster Frederik Svane. In terms of ratings and rankings, there is a gulf between the two, but the Indian couldn’t find a breakthrough against his opponent, who was also fighting the clock. World No. 5 Anish Giri lost in this round, but Gukesh heading home was the biggest shock of the event.
Vidit also suffered an unexpected defeat against Sam Shankland. The American is a strong player, but the Indian is above him and seemed to have gained the upper hand by winning the first rapid game in the tie-breaker. The quarterfinalist in the last two editions needed a draw with white to ensure progress and seemed to be on course. To the disappointment of his wife and parents, who were present at the venue, he suffered an unexpected defeat.
Winners: Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, P Harikrishna, V Pranav, Karthik Venkataraman.
Knocked out: D Gukesh, M Pranesh, Diptayan Ghosh, R Pranesh, Vidit Gujrathi.
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