FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 kicks off in Goa with 16 Indians in action

Round 1 of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 begins today (November 1) in Goa, featuring 16 Indian players, including reigning Women’s World Cup champion Divya Deshmukh, who enters the event as a wild card.

Top seed D Gukesh heads the draw, with Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa seeded second and third. The top 50 players have received byes into Round 2.

A major incentive is at stake: the top three finishers will qualify for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, which will decide the challenger for World Champion Gukesh.

Round 1 Indian pairings:

• GM Kazybek Nogerbek (KAZ) vs GM Raja Rithvik R

• IM Harshavardhan G B vs GM Mustafa Yilmaz (TUR)

• IM Steven Rojas Salas (PER) vs GM S L Narayanan

• GM Pranav Venkatesh vs Ala Eddine Boulrens (ALG)

• GM Iniyan Pa vs GM Dylan Isidro Berdayes Ason (CUB)

• GM Max Warmerdam (NED) vs GM Lalit Rohit

• GM Xiongjian Peng (CHN) vs GM Diptayan Ghosh

• GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja (COL) vs GM Karthik Venkataraman

• GM Raunak Sadhwani vs GM Daniel Barrish (RSA)

• GM Georg Meier (URU) vs IM Neelash Saha

• GM Leon Luke Mendonca vs IM Shixu Wang B (CHN)

• GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly vs GM Ahmad Ahmadzada (AZE)

• GM Divya Deshmukh vs GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (GRE)

• GM Pranesh M vs IM Satbek Akhmedinov (KAZ)

• GM Mateusz Bartel (POL) vs IM Aronyak Ghosh

• GM Andy Woodward (USA) vs IM Himal Gusain

The knockout event features eight rounds. Each match begins with two classical games over two days, followed by tiebreaks on the third day if required. The two semifinal losers will battle for third place.