A clinical Andrey Esipenko proved a touch too difficult for Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev to handle, as the Russian defeated him in both Classical games of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 third-place playoff in Goa. With this victory, Esipenko secured the third and final Candidates spot from the event on Tuesday.
After beating Yakubboev with the white pieces in Game 1, Esipenko needed only a draw in Game 2 to qualify for the eight-player World Championship challenger event in Cyprus.
With no option but to create magic over the board to force tiebreaks, Yakubboev seemed to try too hard. His desperation showed when he sacrificed a bishop on just the 11th move, a decision that instantly swung the game in the Russian’s favour.
A few minutes and several accurate moves later, Esipenko had extinguished Yakubboev’s Candidates hopes, reducing them to a far-fetched dream. Although Yakubboev continued until the 26th move, he ultimately resigned in a mate-in-six position for Esipenko.
An exhausted Esipenko seemed relieved after the much-needed win, following the heartbreak of his semifinal, where he blundered a whole rook to hand China’s Wei Yi a spot in the final.
“I’m extremely happy; this is probably the best moment in my chess career, but I am so exhausted” he said after the match. “I played 30 games in this tournament, so I really wanted it to be over finally. It’s nice to get what I wanted.”
Esipenko revealed that he was so fatigued he could barely calculate moves and just wanted the game to end.
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“It feels good to have qualified for the Candidates. Today, it was a very difficult game to play at this stage. I could not even calculate anything. I was just putting my pieces in place. It was important to win the first game, and then he was the one who needed to win,” he said.
Draw on top board
Meanwhile, on the top board, the battle for the Viswanathan Anand Cup and $120,000 between China’s Wei Yi and Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov raised a question of whether Wei Yi would fight for a win with white pieces after missing a chance to take the lead with black in Game 1?
Wei Yi cleared the air quickly by opting for the Spanish variation of the Four Knights Game, a draw-prone opening. Sindarov was content to share the point in the high-stakes encounter.
The players exchanged all their pieces to reach an opposite-colored bishop endgame, finishing with more time on their clocks than the 90 minutes they started with. After just 30 moves, the minimum required to offer a draw, the pair agreed to a truce, sending the final to shorter time-control tiebreaks once again.
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The ceremonial first move for the Wei Yi vs. Sindarov board was made by Olympic bronze medalist shuttler Saina Nehwal.
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