FIDE World Cup 2025: India’s Narayanan, Diptayan And Aronyak Enter Second Round

FIDE World Cup is played as a single-elimination knock-out tournament with 206 players from 82 countries vying for the title. (AP Photo)

GM Narayanan SL and GM Diptayan Ghosh secured their places in the second round of the FIDE World Cup 2025 by winning both their rapid games on Monday. Aronyak Ghosh also advanced with a solid performance in the second stage of the round 1 tiebreak.

Narayanan, playing with black pieces in the first game, defeated IM Steven Rojas of Peru in 52 moves and then clinched the match with white in just 22 moves. Meanwhile, on an adjacent board, Diptayan Ghosh achieved victory in 70 moves against GM Peng Xiongjian of China in the first game, thanks to his advantageous pawn positioning. He then won the second game in 46 moves, setting up a second-round clash with GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Reflecting on his win, Narayanan commented, “I felt confident in the tie-break. In shorter formats, I generally perform well. I often check my strengths using ChatGPT, and it indicated that I was the favourite this time. Although my opponent played impressively in the two classic games, I was uncertain about the outcome.”

“I pushed to win with black and felt confident with white,” Narayanan added. He will now face GM Nikita Vitiugov of England in the next round.

The FIDE World Cup 2025 is a single-elimination knock-out tournament featuring 206 players from 82 countries competing for the Viswanathan Anand Cup, named in honour of the Indian chess legend.

On Sunday, six Indian players – Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Pranav V, Raunak Sadhwani, Pranesh M, Karthik Venkatraman, and Iniyan Pa – secured their second-round spots. They will join eight others who received byes in the first round due to their top-50 rankings in the competition.

India is guaranteed a spot in the third round as Karthik will face GM Aravindh Chithambaram in the second round on Tuesday.

In the first game of the tiebreak on Monday, Indian players performed strongly. Aronyak Ghosh, Diptayan Ghosh, and Lalith Babu MR all won their matches with white pieces, while Narayanan SL succeeded with black.

Aronyak, who had caused an upset by defeating Polish GM Mateusz Bartel in the second classic game on Sunday, forced his opponent to resign after just 19 moves by pinning his queen and king.

Rithvik, the only Indian to lose the opening game of the tiebreak, bounced back by defeating Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan with black pieces in 52 moves, while Aronyak faced setbacks in the second game.

In the second stage of rapid games, Aronyak won the first game in 54 moves with white pieces and capitalised on Bartel’s mistakes to win the second in 20 moves, advancing to the next round where he will face GM Levon Aronian of the USA.