Esipenko in Candidates, World Cup Goa to be decided in tie-breaks
Locking his Candidates seat, GM Andrey Esipenko destroyed GM Nodirbek Yakubboev 2-0 after the second classical game of the third place play-off at the $ 2 million FIDE World Cup at Hotel Resort Rio, Goa. GM Esipenko gets a cash award of $ 60,000 for securing the third place, while GM Yakubboev takes home $ 50,000 for finishing fourth. The second classical game of the World Cup final between GMs Wei Yi and Javokhir Sindarov ended in a draw, taking the title match into tie-breaks.
India’s badminton legend and former World No. 1 Saina Nehwal inaugurated the 2nd classical game of the World Cup final making the symbolic first move in the Wei Yi – Sindarov board. In some ways it’s apt that Saina Nehwal, an Olympic bronze medalist from London 2012, made the symbolic first move in a game where both the players were Olympiad medalists themselves. Wei Yi was part of Team China that won the chess Olympiad Gold medals in Tromso 2014 & Batumi 2018, while Javokhir Sindarov was part of the Gold medal winning team in the Chennai Chess Olympiad 2022.
The Four Knights Game Spanish Variation match up between GMs Wei Yi and Sindarov looked set for a draw right through. Queens were off the board before the 10th move and shortly after the game moved into an equal opposite colored bishop ending. Waiting for the mandatory 30 move mark the players agreed for a draw taking the World Cup decider into tie-breaks. “They came, they saw, they drew!” said leading commentator GM Arturs Neiksans about the obvious draw. The battle for the $ 120,000 will be fought through sets of rapid & blitz games. The winner shall receive the glittering Viswanathan Anand Cup rolling trophy named in honor of Indian legend.
In the game of the day, GM Andrey Esipenko outplayed GM Nodirbek Yakubboev crushing the dreams of the Uzbek master who unfortunately lost both the matches, the semi-final and the play-off for the third place. GM Yakubboev went for the Reti opening for the crucial must win game, similar to the choice of former World Champion Garry Kasparov in the final game of the FIDE World Championship match at Seville 1987. Surprisingly, the Uzbek master went for a pawn grab 11. Bxd5? which gave black a huge initiative. Not one to miss a golden chance, GM Esipenko came up with a natural fluent attack on the white diagonal wrapping up the game in 26 moves.
Ultimately, the final day final game is round the corner and the World Cup champion will be crowned after nearly four weeks of continuous play. The 2025 FIDE World Cup title will go to an Asian, either the solid Chinese Grandmaster Wei Yi or the rising Uzbek teenage star Javokhir Sindarov. And, this World Cup edition in Goa will go down in history for showcasing non-stop excitement and world class chess fare.
The tie-break games of the 8th & final round starts by Wednesday, 26th November at 4:30 AM ET / 10:30 AM CET / 3:00 PM IST.
Complete Result (Final): Javokhir Sindarov drew with Wei Yi 1-1.
Complete Result (3rd place play-off): Andrey Esipenko beat Nodirbek Yakubboev 2-0.
Nodirbek Yakubboev (2689) – Andrey Esipenko (2681) 1. Nf3 d5 2. g3 Nf6 3. Bg2 e6 4. O-O Be7 5. c4 O-O 6. d3 c5 7. Ne5 a6 8. Qb3 Bd6 9. f4 Qc7 10. cxd5 exd5 11. Bxd5 Nxd5 12. Qxd5 b5 13. Nf3 Bb7 14. Qf5 Nd7 15. e4 c4 16. Be3 Nc5 17. e5 Be7 18. dxc4 bxc4 19. Nbd2 Nd3 20. h4 Rad8 21. Rab1 Bc5 22. Bxc5 Qxc5+ 23. Kh2 Qe3 24. g4 Nc1 25. Rbxc1 Rxd2+ 26. Kg3
26…Qe2 0-1
Wei Yi (2752) – Javokhir Sindarov (2721) 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Nc3 Nf6 4. Bb5 Nd4 5. Nxd4 exd4 6. e5 dxc3 7. exf6 Qxf6 8. dxc3 Bc5 9. Qe2+ Qe7 10. Qxe7+ Bxe7 11. O-O c6 12. Bd3 d5 13. c4 dxc4 14. Bxc4 O-O 15. Re1 Re8 16. Bg5 Be6 17. Bxe7 Bxc4 18. a3 f6 19. Rad1 Kf7 20. Bb4 Rxe1+ 21. Rxe1 Re8 22. Rxe8 Kxe8 23. f3 Kd7 24. Kf2 Ke6 25. Bf8 Kf7 26. Bd6 h5 27. h4 g6 28. Bf4 Be6 29. Bd6 Bc4 30. Bf4
30…Be6 1/2-1/2
Complete Results
Photos Courtesy: Michal Walusza / Eteri Kublashvili / FIDE (International Chess Federation)
Official Site: https://worldcup2025.fide.com/
