Arjun Erigaisi held China’s Wei Yi to a draw with black pieces in their first quarterfinal game of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, taking place in Resort Rio Convention Centre, Goa, on Monday. The last remaining competitor from the host nation, Arjun, wrapped up the game in just 31 moves and 59 minutes.
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What began with an hour and 30 minutes for both sides on the clock ended up with 1 hour, 35 minutes and 3 seconds for Arjun, who gained over five minutes after 60 minutes of play. Both sides came up with a risk-free approach and were flawless in their moves. Arjun’s accuracy was astonishing, 99.5% with dark pieces, while Wei played an equally solid game and concluded with 99% accuracy with white pieces.
The idea behind Arjun playing a solid draw against an extremely challenging opponent like Wei would likely be to wait for his chances with light pieces, denying any risk in the Classical round. A win would all but assure Arjun of a Candidates’ spot, which he missed just by a whisker in the 2024 cycle. Where the likes of Vidit Gujrathi, R. Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh qualified for the prestigious tournament, and Gukesh even went on to win the Candidates Tournament in Toronto to become the youngest winner of the event and later the youngest ever World Champion after beating China’s Ding Liren.
The match-up against Wei is perhaps the steepest challenge Arjun would face in the Goa event. Should he topple the Chinese wall, the Warangal Wunderkind will take on the winner of the Andrey Esipenko vs Sam Shankland match.
Earlier, an unprecedented 24 Indians featured in the 206-player FIDE World Cup. The first two rounds saw 14 Indians (seven in each round) getting knocked out of the event. The third round accounted for five more players from the host nation, while three more Indians — R. Praggnanandhaa, Pranav V and Karthik Venkaraman — fell in Round 4. Pentala Harikrishna reached Round 5 alongside Arjun but lost to Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara in the tiebreaks.