Team Herald
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ARPORA: GM R Praggnanandhaa made the most of the slight advantage he gained in the middle game to beat GM Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia as four Indians booked a place in the fourth round of FIDE World Cup 2025, here, on Saturday, while World Champion Gukesh D was knocked out.
Praggnanandhaa, who had to play a long tie-break to reach the third round and then drew the first game with black, found himself in a tricky situation as it looked like Hovhannisyan had negated the Indians early advantage.
But the third highest ranked Indian had a clear game plan and took control of the match by move 27 with his queen and rook putting pressure on black’s king. The Armenian ultimately resigned after 42 moves.
A total of 10 Indians have made it to the third round of the FIDE World Cup 2025, which is being played as a single-elimination knock-out tournament with 206 players from 82 countries vying for the coveted Viswanathan Anand Cup, named after the Indian legend.
Harikrishna, who had won the first game with white, was the first Indian to advance to the next round after he played out a quick draw against Belgium’s GM Daniel Dardha and was soon joined by GM Arjun Erigaisi and World Junior Champion GM Pranav V, who also did not take risks with black pieces and split the point.
Anish Giri, the highest seeded foreign player in the competition, was knocked out after he lost the second game against GM Alexander Donchenko with black pieces in 47 moves. World champion Gukesh D lost his third round match against Frederik Svane. Having drawn the first game with black pieces, the Indian went for a win in the second but Svane not only managed to wriggle out of time pressure but also forced Gukesh to resign in a knight-pawn ending.
Arjun will now face Hungarian GM Peter Leko, who defeated GM Kirill Alekseenko in both games of Round 3. Meanwhile, GM Vidit Gujrathi, Karthik Venkataraman and GM Narayanan S will now have to play the tie-break on Sunday after they draw both the games in this round.
