Panaji: GM Arjun Erigaisi could not convert his advantage in the middle game and had to settle for a draw in the second game against GM Wei Yi as their FIDE World Cup 2025 quarterfinal heads to a tiebreak.
Having played a quick draw with black on Monday, Arjun expectedly looked for a win with white and it looked like the highest ranked player left in the competition had gained an upper hand in the middle game.
At that stage, the chess engines were suggesting a bishop sacrifice as the top move to drive home the advantage but Arjun went with a relatively steady queen to d2 and Wei then defended well to ensure that there was no other result possible.
Arjun will begin the tiebreak with black pieces on Wednesday and should be the favourite to advance in the rapid format.
Two more quarterfinals will head to the tiebreak as GM GM Andrey Esipenko split the point against GM Sam Shankland after 37 moves while the match between GM Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara and GM Javokhir Sindarov ended after just 25 moves with the game lasting just 18 minutes.
Uzbekistan’s GM Nodirbek Yakubboev was the only player to advance to the semi-finals after the two classical games as he drew the second game against GM Alexander Donchenko of Germany in 57 moves. Nordirbek had won the first game with white pieces.
