New Delhi: Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi stormed into the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup 2025 after beating Levon Aronian of United States. The Indian chess player prevailed over the two-time American winner in the second game of the round of 16 event in Goa.
Arjun, who has been experiencing a fine run at the big event till now, continued his superb form as he was right n control of the match from the beginning till the end. The fact that his win came with black pieces tells volumes about the amount of resilience put in by the Indian Grandmaster to adapt to varied situations in a quick span of time.
Arjun exhibits best in return game
Meanwhile, having drawn the first game under classical time control against his opponent who has been witnessing his peak recently, Arjun exhibited his best in the return game with the black pieces, getting the position to his liking. The Indian player made it clear that the first drawn game with the slightly favourable colour has less impact on him as he came back more strongly in the second game.
Meanwhile in the other games, another Indian Grandmaster P Harikrishna played out his second draw on the trot with Jose Eduardo Matinez Alcantara of Mexico while Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan cemented his place in the last-eight of the marquee event at the expense of Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia.
For Harikrishna, it will be a bit challenging as he will have to return for the tiebreaker on Sunday to witness his fate in the 2 million USD event that also has top three places reserved for the next Candidates tournament. In some other matches in the day at FIDE WC, Sam Shankland of United States drew with Daniil Dubov of Russia to go to the tiebreaker while the all-Russian duel between Andrey Esipenko and Aleksey Grebnev also will be decided in the shorter format on Sunday.
(With PTI inputs)