FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, Round 1 Tiebreakers Results and Standings Live Updates: The 11th edition of the FIDE World Cup (official) is underway in Arpora, Goa, with 206 players from around the world taking part in the knockout biennial event.
After the first two games of the opening round, Divya Deshmukh crashed out of the event after losing to Greek Grandmaster Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis in back-to-back games. The top 50 seeded players, which also included eight Indians, were given byes for the first round, resulting in 16 Indians being in action for the opening round.
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FIDE CHESS WORLD CUP 2025 ROUND 1 GAME 2: LIVE STREAMING CHECK HERE
After the two classical games, five Indians — Divya, Neelash Saha, Luke Leon Mendonca, Himal Gusain and Harshavardhan GB — have made an early exit from the event. Seven Indians, which included the likes of Pranav V, Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Pranesh M, have directly qualified for Round 2 without needing to play tiebreaks.
Five Indians are in action on Monday for the tiebreaks.
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Grandmasters’ getaway: India’s vacation capital Goa turns into chess arena as it prepares to host the World Cup
A day before the FIDE World Cup kicks off in earnest, a small battalion of about 200 people is working tirelessly at the Resort Rio Convention Centre. (Express Photo by Amit Kamath)
“Even the grandmasters need a holiday. Preferably before facing each other,” reads a board at Goa’s Resort Rio, a five-star hotel in the tony village of Arpora that will host the FIDE World Cup, one of the most prestigious tournaments in the sport. When the action starts from Saturday in a state that has become India’s vacation capital, ideas like ‘holiday’ and ‘relaxation’ will be a luxury for the players in attendance — one that they cannot afford with three spots for Candidates on the line and a brutal path to the title in front of anyone who fancies making it to the semi-finals.
The players are not the only ones working tirelessly. A day before the FIDE World Cup kicks off in earnest, a small battalion of about 200 people is working tirelessly at the Resort Rio Convention Centre. For many members of this hidden workforce, the past four days have been a blur of tasks and sleepless nights as they went about transforming the convention centre with grandiose chandeliers into an arena fit for chess. The land of fish, feni and football is gearing up for a month of chess, involving 156 players. And is keen to impress.
