Chess World Cup: Narayanan first to qualify to round of 128

Panjim, Nov 3 (PTI) India's S L Narayanan dumped Steven Rojas of South Africa and became the first player to qualify to the round of 128 in the first set of tie-break games of the FIDE World Cup 2025 that ended here 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 Ghosh proved superior to Peng Xionglian of China as he won both his games in the first set of tiebreaker to move ahead.

The Indian from Kolkata was in his prime 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 7000 USD 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 South African 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 right from the word go.

Not many would have fancied Diptayan Ghosh coming in here only because India being the host country, got some extra seats.

If the Bengal player was in pressure, he did not show it. And the way he capitalised on his chances in both games, it was exemplary. However, it remains to be seen how he performs in the next round, which will be a lot tougher.

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 drew with Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz) 1-1, 1-1, tiebreak on; Aronyak Ghosh drew with Mateusz Bartel (Pol) 1-1, 1-1, tiebreak on; 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. PTI Cor AH AH