IMAGE: S L Narayanan outclassed Steven Rojas of South Africa scored a remarkable victory with black in just 22 moves. Photograph: Eteri Kublashvili/FIDE
Indian Grandmaster SL Narayanan and Diptayan Ghosh won both their rapid games to clinch their spots in the second round of FIDE World Cup 2025 while Aronyak Ghosh joined them with a clinical performance in the second stage of Round 1 tiebreak, in Panjim, on Monday.
Playing the Sicilian defense in the first game as black, Narayanan, known for his skills in the faster version of the game, crashed through white’s defenses with a finely chalked plan and followed it up with a remarkable victory in just 22 moves with white to stamp his authority in what was anyway presumed to be an uneven clash.
Diptayan proved superior to Peng Xionglian of China as he won both his games in the first set of tiebreaker to move ahead. The Kolkata lad was in prime form in the first game of tiebreaker as he won with white and then capitalised on an erroneous display by his opponent to romp home and is now assured of a $7,000 paycheck.
Things were smooth for Narayanan in the first game as he repeated his pet opening and did not meet with a proper response. The middle game was level and the Peruvian did not have a clue once the complexities of strategy arrived.
The first game ended without much punch but in the second, Narayanan proved his mettle with a crushing attack from the word go.
Diptayan was under pressure, but he did not show it, and the way he capitalised on his chances in both games was exemplary. However, it remains to be seen how he performs in the next round, which will be a lot tougher.
Ritvik Raja was among those who lasted the longest in the tie-break as he went down in blitz tiebreaker against 2024 world junior champion Nogirbek Kazybek of Kazakhstan. The final result was 5-3 in favour of the Kazakh GM but the Indian fought valiantly till the end in this contest.
Aronyak used his skills in faster version of the game to show the exit door to Mateusz Bartel of Poland. The Polish Grandmaster had his chance in the Classical games, but when it came to rapid section of 10-minute game, he was no match for Aronyak.
M R Lalith Babu, meanwhile, was ousted playing a robust move-for-move against Max Warmerdam of Holland. The Indian played out till the three minutes blitz games before going out in his first World Cup.
Indian results Round 1:
V Pranav beat Ala Eddine Boulrens (Alg) 2-0; Raunak Sadhwani beat FM Daniel Barrish (RSA) 1.5-0.5; M Pranesh beat Satbek Akhmedinov (Kaz) 1.5-0.5; Karthik Venkataraman beat Roberto Garcia Pantoja (Cub) 1.5-0.5; Diptayan Ghosh beat Peng Xiongjian (Chn) 1-1, 2-0; Surya Shekhar Ganguly beat Ahmad Ahmadzada (Aze) 2:0; Pa Iniyan beat Dylan Berdayes (Cub) 1.5-0.5; Raja Rithvik lost to Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz) 3-5; Aronyak Ghosh beat Mateusz Bartel (Pol) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0; ; M R Lalit Babu drew with GM Max Warmerdam (Ned) 1-1, 1-1 tiebreak on; S L Narayanan beat Steven Rojas (Per) 1-1, 2-0; Himal Gusain lost to Andy Woodward (USA) 0-2; G B Harshavardhan lost to Yilmaz Mustafa (Tur) 0.5:1.5; Neelash Saha lost to GM Georg Meier (Uru) 0.5-1.5; Leon Luke Mendonca lost to Shixu B Wang (Chn) 0.5-1.5; Divya Deshmukh lost to Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre) 0-2.
