Martínez, Aronian ease into World Cup pre quarters @ Goa
GM José Martínez Alcántara (Mexico) continued his dream run moving into the pre quarter-finals after the second classical game of round 4 at the $ 2 million FIDE World Cup at Hotel Resort Rio, Goa. Big heads survived shakily as the long drawn knock out tournament slowly takes its toll. Just four of the top ten seeds viz., GMs Erigaisi Arjun, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Vincent Keymer & Wei Yi remain in contention and the quartet need to survive the test of tie-breaks to move into the round of 16.
GM José Martínez Alcántara who got the better of Russian Serbian GM Alexey Sarana in a complicated game the day earlier, drew a cool second classical encounter to proceed to the next round. With his quiet yet powerful show at the World Cup Goa, GM Martínez has effectively silenced his critics. Known for his prowess in speed chess Martínez has proved that he’s one better in classical version, as well. Having traveled 40 hours reach the Indian shores in Goa, Martínez finds himself with a golden opportunity now & will surely want to make the best out it.
Having survived a losing position the day before, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was all caution and took a quiet draw against former world rapid champion GM Daniil Dubov. It was quite understable that the duo wanted to move on to the tie-breaks after an earlier bloodshed went without a result.
The Great Escape, a 1963 movie starring Holloywood stars Steve McQueen, Richard Attenborough, Charles Bronson, James Coburn gained critical acclaim and a cult following in later years. Similarly, the Parham Maghsoodloo vs Wei Yi game saw the genial Iranian perform a great escape. On the losing side until the very end, the genial Iranian GM broke the heart of the Chinese star snatching an improbable draw. In a clear case of the slip between the cup and lip, the psychological effect of the missed win is sure to impact the tie-breaker match between GMs Parham Maghsoodloo and Wei Yi.
Former Indian National Champion GM Karthik Venkataraman ended his World Cup crusade with a defeat in the hands of GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam. The Nimzo-Indian game was more a positional battle where the former Asian Champion from Vietnam outwitted the Indian. Karthik fought hard, well into the fifth hour of play, but with great precision GM Le nurtured his advantage to a full point.
In another close encounter, Uzbek GM Yakubboev Nodirbek showed World Junior Champion Pranav Venkatesh the door where things went quite wrong for the Indian. In the Scotch game white’s gradual increase in space and position advantage undid the Indian Grandmaster. A queen trade-off in the middle game might have improved Pranav’s chances to hold the game to a draw. But skipping the queen exchange saw Pranav succumb to a pile of attack through his queen and double rooks. Despite putting up a valiant show in the FIDE Grand Swiss at Samarkand last month and at the World Cup Goa, Pranav missed making the cut. But with age and resilience on his side, this Chennai based Grandmaster is bound to go far.
The trio of Indian GMs in contention for the hosts viz., Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Erigaisi Arjun and Pentala Harikrishna will go through tie-breaks hoping to make their way to the pre quarter-finals. Other higher seeds fighting it out through the speedy tie-breaks were GMs Wei Yi (China), Vincent Keymer (Germany), Liang Awonder (USA), Richard Rapport (Hungary), Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Yu Yangyi (China), Sargsyan Shant (Armenia) and Samuel Sevian (USA).
Earlier, GM Alexander Donchenko continued his giant-killing run consuming fellow German GM Matthias Bluebaum. By defeating the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 winner & runner-up – GMs Anish Giri & Matthias Bluebaum – in successive rounds, GM Donchenko has sounded a clear warning to his rivals, that he needs to be taken seriously. Joining Donchenko into the pre quarter-finals were GMs Levon Aronian (USA), Le Quang Liem (Vietnam), José Martínez Alcántara (Mexico) and Yakubboev Nodirbek (Uzbekistan).
The 4th round tie-break games starts by Thursday, 13th November at 4:30 AM ET / 10:30 AM CET / 3:00 PM IST.
Key tie-break duels: Svane Frederik – Sargsyan Shant, Peter Leko – Erigaisi Arjun, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu – Daniil Dubov, Andrey Esipenko – Vincent Keymer, Wei Yi – Parham Maghsoodloo, Grandelius Nils – Pentala Harikrishna, Samuel Sevian – Lodici Lorenzo, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – Aleksey Grebnev, Awonder Liang – Gabriel Sargissian, Sam Shankland – Richard Rapport, Yu Yangyi – Javokhir Sidarov.
Results: (Round 4 Game 2): Svane Frederik drew with Sargsyan Shant 1-1, Peter Leko drew with Erigaisi Arjun 1-1, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu drew with Daniil Dubov 1-1, Matthias Bluebaum lost to Alexander Donchenko 0.5-1.5, Pranav Venkatesh lost to Yakubboev Nodirbek 0.5-1.5, Andrey Esipenko drew with Vincent Keymer 1-1, Wei Yi drew with Parham Maghsoodloo 1-1, Alexey Sarana lost to José Martínez Alcántara 0.5-1.5, Grandelius Nils drew with Pentala Harikrishna 1-1, Samuel Sevian drew with Lodici Lorenzo 1-1, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew with Aleksey Grebnev 1-1, Awonder Liang drew with Gabriel Sargissian 1-1, Le Quang Liem beat Karthik Venkataraman 1.5-0.5, Sam Shankland drew with Richard Rapport 1-1, Levon Aronian beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek 1.5-0.5, Yu Yangyi drew with Javokhir Sidarov 1-1.
Alexander Donchenko (2641) – Matthias Bluebaum (2680) 1. c4 e6 2. Nc3 d5 3. d4 Be7 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Bf4 Nf6 6. e3 O-O 7. h3 c5 8. Nf3 Nc6 9. Bb5 cxd4 10. Nxd4 Qb6 11. O-O Nxd4 12. Qxd4 Qxd4 13. exd4 Be6 14. Bd3 a6 15. Na4 Nd7 16. b4 Bf6 17. Be3 Nb8 18. Nb6 Ra7 19. f4 Bd8 20. Na4 Nc6 21. a3 f5 22. Rac1 Bf6 23. Rfe1 Raa8 24. Nc5 Bc8 25. Bb1 Nxd4 26. Ba2 Rd8 27. Bf2 Kf8 28. Na4 b5 29. Nb6 Rb8 30. Nxd5 Rd6 31. Nxf6 gxf6 32. Kf1 Bb7 33. Rc7 Be4 34. Rxh7 Rbd8 35. Rd1 Ne6 36. Rh8+ Ke7 37. Rxd8 Rxd8 38. Rxd8 Nxd8 39. Bc5+ Kd7 40. h4 Ne6 41. g3 Bd3+ 42. Ke1 Ng7 43. Bf7 Bc4
44. Bg6 1-0
Yakubboev Nodirbek (2689) – Pranav Venkatesh (2641) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nxc6 bxc6 6. e5 Qe7 7. Qe2 Nd5 8. c4 Ba6 9. Nd2 f6 10. g3 fxe5 11. Bg2 Nf6 12. O-O Qe6 13. a3 Bc5 14. b4 Bd4 15. Rb1 Rb8 16. Bb2 Bxb2 17. Rxb2 O-O 18. Rc1 c5 19. Nb3 cxb4 20. Nc5 Qd6 21. axb4 Bc8 22. Ra1 a6 23. h3 Qe7 24. Qe1 Rb6 25. Na4 Rd6 26. Re2 Qf7 27. Rxe5 Qxc4 28. Rc5 Qd4 29. Rxc7 Re6 30. Qd1 Qxb4 31. Qc2 Rc6 32. Bxc6 dxc6 33. Qxc6 Bxh3 34. Nc3 h6 35. Qxa6 Ng4 36. Qe6+ Kh8 37. Qd7 Rg8
38. Ra8 1-0.
Photos Courtesy: Michal Walusza / Eteri Kublashvili / FIDE (International Chess Federation)
Official Site: https://worldcup2025.fide.com/
