Divya Deshmukh’s tryst with the FIDE World Cup in Goa ended on Sunday with a second successive defeat to Greek grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis, this time in 73 moves with the black pieces. Divya was the only woman in the 206-player field at the World Cup in Goa. With 80 rating points separating Divya from Kourkoulos-Arditis, the 19-year-old from Nagpur was not the favourite in the two-game contest. But Divya’s recent results at tournaments—winning the FIDE Women’s World Cup and her wins over two grandmasters at the FIDE Grand Swiss — besides her reputation of coming up clutch in must-win situations, and her tendency to fight to the death in games, meant she would have fancied her chances at dragging Kourkoulos-Arditis into the tie-breaks on Monday at the Goa event. Besides Divya, home favourite Leon Luke Mendonca, playing in his first FIDE World Cup, that too at home, was also eliminated after losing his second game to an International Master from China, Shixu B Wang.
The most significant result of the day for India was International Master Aronyak Ghosh defeating Polish Grandmaster Mateusz Bartel on demand after losing on Saturday to force tiebreaks. Ghosh and Bartel will now face each other in two rapid games on Monday, with a time control of 15 minutes for each player (with 10 second increment per move). If those two games cannot decide the winner, the time controls will get smaller and smaller until the players have to duel in an Armageddon battle. Also facing tiebreaks tomorrow for a chance to play in the second round are India’s SL Narayanan, Lalit Babu MR, international master Diptayan Ghosh, and Raja Rithvik R.
Among the players who secured a spot in the second round are the veteran Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Raunak Sadhwani, junior world champion Pranav V, Karthik Venkatraman and Pranesh.
The second round will see all the top Indians, including world champion Gukesh Dommaraju, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Vidit Santosh Gujarathi entering the fray.
Divya had lost the first game of round 1 with white pieces on Saturday, so Sunday’s game was a must-win for her to force the matter into tie-breaks. After Kourkoulos-Arditis started with the Zukertort Opening, just one pair of pawns were off the board for the first 23 moves with players opting against exchanges. But by the 17th move, the engine was showing an advantage to Divya’s opponent while the clock showed a 15-minute edge for the Greek grandmaster.
By the 26th move, Divya was staring at time trouble as she searched desperately for ways to secure victory. Even after getting an additional 30 minutes on the 40th move, she was never in control of her clock that seemed to be slipping away from her grasp like sand through her fingers. She made her last 22 moves of the game relying on just increments with the time on her clock never rising over two minutes.
Divya did get a reprieve on the 35th move from the Greek GM, when he pushed a pawn f4, but Divya could not convert.
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Indian results (Game 2-Round 1)
GM Divya Deshmukh lost to GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre) 0:2
GM Pranav V bt Ala Eddine Boulrens (Alg) 2:0
GM Raunak Sadhwani bt FM Daniel Barrish (RSA) 1.5:0.5
GM Pranesh bt IM Satbek Akhmedinov (Kaz) 1.5:0.5
GM Karthik Venkataraman bt GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja (Cub) 1.5:0.5
GM Diptayan Ghosh drew with GM Peng Xiongjian (CHN) 1:1
GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly bt GM Ahmad Ahmadzada (AZE) 2:0
GM Iniyan Pa bt GM Dylan Berdayes (Cub) 1.5:0.5
GM Raja Rithvik R drew with Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz) 1:1
IM Aronyak Ghosh beat GM Mateusz Bartel (Pol) 1:1
GM Lalit Babu MR drew with GM Max Warmerdam (Ned) 1:1
GM Narayanan SL drew with IM Steven Rojas (Per) 1:1
IM Himal Gusain lost to GM Andy Woodward (USA) bt 0:2
IM Harshavardhan GB lost to GM Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur) 0.5:1.5
IM Neelash Saha lost to GM Georg Meier (Uru) 0.5:1.5
GM Leon Luke Mendonca lost to IM Shixu B Wang (Chn) 0.5:1.5
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