World Chess Weekly: World Cup Shows Off Game In All Its Glory
The tragedy of GM Daniel Naroditsky's death still looms large over the chess world, and it will for a long time to come.
But this week the elite game got back up on its feet again and back to business at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, India. And what a start we've seen.
The highlights are too many to list.
Big names have fallen. Brilliant games have been played. There have been dramatic tiebreaks. We've loved every minute.
And, aside from a parting barb from a downcast GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, there has been little in the way of controversy.
FIDE's flagship $2 million tournament, which features 206 players, has so far gone without a hitch and, unlike the last couple of weeks of chess news, it's been all about actual chess on the board.
Magic Of The Cup
For memorable moments, look no further than GM Pentala Harikrishna. It's the former Indian number-one who has provided the fireworks and wonder that everyone will remember.
His queen sacrifice on move 8 against GM Arseniy Nesterov was a thing of beauty, the result of deep preparation, and it crushed his opponent. As the chess historian Olimpiu Di Luppi noted, it was like the legendary Paul Morphy was reborn for an hour as a 39-year-old Indian.
Here is Harikrishna's hammer-blow in all its glory:
The sac paid off in spectacular style. Here is what Harikrishna afterwards in an interview with the All India Chess Federation:
On Thursday, lovers of controversy suffered a blow when the 2738-rated 10th seed GM Hans Niemann crashed out in tiebreaks to Italy’s GM Lorenzo Lodici.
The pair had drawn their two classical games before going to a rapid tiebreak. Niemann was hanging on before he blundered with 72…Rg1? and Lodici, rated 2560, converted. Niemann's frustration was clear.
On Tuesday, we wrote about Nepomniachtchi's elimination at the hands of Indian GM Diptayan Ghosh and how it was the latest sign of Russia's slump in the chess world standings.
On his way out, the Russian number-one and former world title challenger complained about conditions in India on Telegram, saying: "There’s nothing to say about the chess part. Goa is one of those places you don’t feel sad about leaving."
While Nepo's reaction can probably be put down to disappointment, Indian players such as GM Vidit Gujrathi and Harikrishna rallied to the defence of their country's hosting ability. Gujrathi, meanwhile, beat the much talked about Argentinian prodigy GM Faustino Oro.
The end result is that it now seems highly likely there will be no Russian representation in the 2026 FIDE Candidates, even though three spots are available in this tournament.
However, there is still hope. Former World Rapid Champion GM Daniil Dubov has been out of form of late but he is into the third round having dispatched Chinese GM Jinshi Bai.
English hopes are still alive with the evergreen GM Michael Adams also progressing with an extremely hard-fought victory over another veteran in GM Ivan Cheparinov which went down to blitz tiebreaks. The match lasted 10 games in total.
Adams is 53 and has said this will be his last World Cup. He turns 54 on November 17 and would dearly love to spend his birthday in Goa going deep into the tournament. Adams is the last English player left after GM Nikita Vitiugov bowed out to another strong Indian player (there are so many) GM S. Narayanan.
Deshmukh lost to Greek GM Stamatis Kourkoulos who then provided one of the biggest shocks of Round 2 when he defeated yet another Indian, the small but deadly GM Nihal Sarin. Kourkoulos won't be a popular man in India.
Thankfully for Indian fans, who have thronged around the venue, home heroes GM Praggnanandhaa R and World Champion Gukesh D have powered on. The smart money is still on an Indian winner.
But despite the continued sadness about Naroditsky's death, it still feels wonderful that the chess world is now talking about chess again.
Round 3 begins on Friday with the second game on Saturday and tiebreaks where needed on Sunday. You can view the full games, get commentary and analysis at the official site here.
Perhaps the biggest shock, however, was GM Wesley So's knockout. The American resigned in a technically drawn position against the little-known Lithuanian GM Titas Stremavicius.
There are no women left competing at the FIDE World Cup. The only female participant, India's GM Diyya Deshmukh was knocked out of FIDE's $2 million event in the first round on Sunday. We examined the issue of women at the World Cup earlier in the week here.