Karthik Venkataraman advances to fourth round of FIDE World Cup 2025

GM Karthik Venkataraman outperformed GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac in the FIDE World Cup 2025 tiebreaker, securing a spot in the fourth round. However, Vidit Gujrathi and Narayanan SL were eliminated after tough losses in their respective tiebreaker games

Hyderabad: GM Karthik Venkataraman continued his dream run in the FIDE World Cup 2025 as he outwitted GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) in the second game of the tiebreaker with the black pieces to advance to the fourth round in Panaji (Goa) on Sunday.

Karthik, who had drawn the first rapid game with white, pinned Deac’s king in one corner and made the most of the additional bishop on the board to win in 43 moves.

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“In the classical game against Deac, it was not too well, but I somehow managed to defend. However, in both rapid games, I played well. I don’t know if I was objectively winning in the first game, but I was clearly better. The second game was also smooth,” said Karthik, who will next face Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

Speaking about the pressure of playing in the World Cup, the two-time National Champion, who had defeated compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram in the second round, said, “Chess players are not used to playing this kind of format. Normally it is Swiss or round-robin, and one can relax a bit. But here, you are always under pressure that you can be eliminated, and that pressure is a lot to handle.”

With Karthik’s victory, a total of five Indian players will be in action in the fourth round as the competition of the Viswanathan Anand Cup and three Candidate Sports heads toward the business end after a rest day on Monday.

However, it was heartbreak for Vidit Gujrathi and Narayanan SL. Vidit started the tiebreaker with a full point in the opening rapid game against Shankland, beating the American in 75 moves.

But in the second game, Vidit made a mistake with queen exchanges under time pressure and lost the second game in 49 moves, taking the match into a second set of rapid games. He then lost the sixth game with white pieces in 61 moves and was knocked out.

Narayanan SL, playing black, suffered a reversal in another marathon game that lasted 125 moves as his efforts to stave off Chinese GM Yu Yangyi’s attack ultimately failed. With the second game ending in a draw, the Indian was knocked out.