Peter Leko's World Cup Fairytale Ends: Goodbye To One Of The Game's Great Ambassadors
We've been hanging on his every move in Goa—and until now he's been in sensational form.
But GM Peter Leko, the elder statesman at this year's FIDE World Cup, finally met his match on Thursday.
Leko, having defied all predictions to storm into Round 4 and take it to tiebreaks, was knocked out by the home favourite GM Arjun Erigaisi. What a run Hungary's legend had. He himself described it as a "fairytale."
Erigaisi winning was, admittedly, no surprise. India's world number-five is one of the hot favourites to take the World Cup (even more so after this round) and has the added motivation of a place in next year's all-important FIDE Candidates to consider.
Up against Leko, he didn't find it easy. Leko held him to two draws in classical on Tuesday and Wednesday before Erigaisi's energy eventually told as the games went to a rapid tiebreak.
In the first rapid game, Leko tried a risky pawn sacrifice. It didn't go well and Erigaisi went ahead before closing the deal again in the second game.
Leko was a super-strong rapid player in his prime and being inactive for the last five years in that time-control can't have helped. But then, he never expected this.
It capped an up and down day for Indian chess as both Erigaisi and GM Pentala Harikrishna advanced to the last 16 after dominating their tiebreaks. Harikrishna beat the Swede GM Nils Grandelius 2.5-1.5.
But the big, almost ground-shaking shock was GM Praggnanandhaa R, the 2023 World Cup runner-up, crashing out in tiebreaks to the Russian GM Daniil Dubov, a former World Rapid champion.
Dubov is no pushover, he can beat anyone, but Praggnanandhaa is one of the best players in the world right now. Much was expected of him.
"That's a shocker!" said GM Jan Gustafsson on the FIDE stream.
Indian fans were also in shock:
With Pragg going out, there's a lot of home crowd hope now resting on the shoulders of Harikrishna and Erigaisi. India started with a contingent of 24 players—that's now down to two.
The result also has huge implications for the FIDE Candidates race, meaning three spots definitely now will be decided in the later rounds. A bunch of previously unlikely names also come into the mix and only one spot will now come via the FIDE Circuit.
But back to Leko. In recent months, the veteran has been sadly missing from his role as a commentator extraordinaire. Instead, he's been busy training the young German GM Vincent Keymer, who is also gunning for a Candidates spot.
The master Leko has arguably outshone his pupil. Keymer—who has risen to world number-four under Leko's tutelage—was also knocked out on Friday, by the Russian GM Andrey Esipenko.
At the start of the World Cup, he said in an interview: "I am playing maybe my final individual tournament."
Maybe that will change?
But either way, Leko didn't take long to get back where we love him. Minutes after the disappointment of exiting the World Cup, which he's said will be his last, Hungary's legend of chess was in the commentary box analysing games on the official FIDE broadcast.
Never change, Peter, never change!