India Have Mixed Day in FIDE World Cup 2025 Opener

A record 24 Indian players participated in FIDE World Cup 2025, in Goa, India, making up about 11.65% of the total participants. The craze of chess in India is surreal! 

The competition is fierce: while a few Indian players moved a step closer to the ultimate World Chess Championship, others faced early exits, returning home without a trophy.

How Indian Players Fared in the FIDE World Cup 2025 Opener?

The Indian contingent demonstrated a mix of promising victories, solid draws, and some tough defeats, too. Let’s begin with our reigning Women’s World Cup champion, GM Divya Deshmukh, the only female Indian participant. She had a tough start, losing her first classical game to Greece’s Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis. 

GM Divya Deshmukh lost the first game to GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis and has to win on demand with black to force tiebreaks! #FIDEWorldCup2025

@FIDE_chess @ChessbaseIndia @FIDE_chess @aicfchess @tsagofficial @IndiaSports @Media_SAI @narangnitin @NodwinGaming pic.twitter.com/PEEZFQuVzj

— Chess.com – India (@chesscom_in) November 1, 2025

Nevertheless, Grandmasters Pranav V, M Pranesh, Pa. Iniyan, and Surya Sekhar Ganguly kicked off the tournament with strong opening wins at the FIDE World Cup 2025.  They are well-positioned to qualify for Round 2 if they can at least draw their second games.

Similarly, seven Indians, including Raunak Sadhwani, Leon Luke Mendonca, S L Narayanan, Lalith Babu M R, Karthik Venkataraman, Diptayan Ghosh, and Rithvik Raja, drew their games.

Whereas four Indian players, Harshavardhan G B, Himal Gusain, Neelash Saha, and Aronyak Ghosh, lost the opening games. 

Top Indian grandmasters like D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, and R Praggnanandhaa received byes directly into Round 2 due to their high seeding.

Note: The tournament is taking place from October 30 to November 27, 2025.

Overview of FIDE World Cup 2025 and Its Importance

The tournament kicked off, featuring 206 top chess players competing in a single-elimination knockout format. 

Here is the FIDE World Cup format: Have a look!

• Each match has 2 classical games.
• Players get 90 minutes for the first 40 moves.
• After 40 moves, they get 30 extra minutes for the rest of the game.
• From move 1, players also get a 30-second bonus (increment) after every move.
• If both classical games end in a tie, then rapid and blitz tiebreakers are played to decide the winner.

The highlight of the FIDE World Cup 2025 is the substantial prize money, reportedly amounting to $2 million. 

Writers’ Take

For chess enthusiasts, the FIDE World Cup 2025 is unmissable. You should catch the live streaming primarily on FIDE’s official YouTube channel. It serves as a golden ticket to the 2026 Candidates Tournament, with the top three finishers earning direct entry. 

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