World Chess Weekly: It's ALL About The World Cup, And We're On Tenterhooks

Twenty-four Indians started out in Round 1 of the FIDE World Cup in Goa, with several tipped for ultimate glory on home soil. By Friday this week, just two remain.

On Thursday GM Praggnanandhaa R crashed out to the horror of the home fans. Here was perhaps India's biggest hope, the third seed being dumped out by the 30th, GM Daniil Dubov. The Russian's undoubted talent aside, it was as GM Jan Gustafsson said, "a shocker."

Praggnanandhaa was just the latest in a series of big names to fall. The same day world number-four GM Vincent Keymer, who's been in scintillating form of late, went out.

Unlike Pragg, Keymer doesn't have the near-guarantee of a 2026 FIDE Candidates place locked down via the FIDE Circuit qualifying route. The German was desperate to get though to take one of the three spots available from this event, but didn't.

Bonfire of Big-Names

Germany's strength in depth has been on full show during this tournament but with Keymer and his Candidates-qualified colleague GM Matthias Bluebaum also out the Germans have been cut to two, GMs Frederik Svane and Alexander Donchenko.

French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, another good bet for the semis at least, was eliminated in what has become a week-long exodus. The French number-one GM Alireza Firouzja, another in need of a Candidates place, is long-gone.

Just two of the top 10 seeds remain: GM Arjun Erigaisi and GM Wei Yi, and we're not event at the quarter-finals yet. GM Levon Aronian, the king of the World Cup, still looms ominously though.

Does anyone actually want to win the this thing? Does anyone want to go to the Candidates?

So far, it's the underdog stories that have been grabbing the headlines. Clash of Blames star GM Jose Martinez has blazed his way through to the last 16.

Out of India's golden generation only Erigaisi remains. But it is one of the fore-runners of that generation, GM Pentala Harikrishna, who has lit up the stage. Harikrishna pulled off one of the games of the tournament so far on Tuesday with a sublime queen-sac on move 8.

On Thursday, the fairytale of GM Peter Leko ended at the hands of Erigaisi. But we're glad to hear he'll be in the official FIDE commentary box for the rest of the tournament.

We played down Russia's chances of providing a winner in Round 1 when national number-one GM Ian Nepomniachtchi went home. Perhaps we shouldn't have. GMs Dubov, Aleksey Grebnev and Andrey Esipenko are still in the running to prove us wrong.

It all adds up to a wide-open event as we get to the business end. Round 5 starts on Friday and who goes through is anyone's guess. Watch it via FIDE's official broadcast here.

Also this week, we highlighted the President's Cup in Tajikistan and the release of the latest edition of The World Chess Show, our flagship global chess TV show.

Headlines From The Week:

• Peter Leko's World Cup Fairytale Ends: Goodbye To One Of The Game's Great Ambassadors
• Have You SEEN How Well Jospem Is Doing At The World Cup? Jose Martinez, We Salute You!
• Does Genius Have A Market Price? New Episode Of The World Chess Show Drops
• While The World Watches Goa, An Indian Takes Centre Stage At The President's Cup In Tajikistan