For Divya Deshmukh, Day One of the FIDE World Cup 2025 wasn’t great. The Indian female chess grandmaster earned her spot in the tournament as a wild card after a stunning win at the Women’s World Cup. With the prime focus on her as the lone female player on the 206 field, the expectations were high, but it wasn’t enough to secure a win.
The 19-year-old got outplayed in the first match of the opening round held on November 1, against Greece’s Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis. Stamatis maintained pressure over Divya from the mid-game. On the 17th move, she made a pawn exchange that earned her a half point. Despite the pressure, she put up a fight with a rook-pawn ending. Unable to bounce back more, the Indian player was, however, forced to resign after 41 moves with Stamatis performing an advancing pawn on the b-file.
Divya’s next chance to win rests on winning in her second game with black pieces on Sunday, followed by a tie-breaker.
Indian players at the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 Day 1
Besides her, Indian players like Neelash Saha, Aronyak Ghosh, Himal Gusain, and G.B. Harshvardhan all lost their respective matches of the day.
World Junior champion GM Pranav V, the highest-ranked Indian player, was in great action on the first day. He defeated IM Ala Eddine Boulens of Algeria. In 48 moves he defeated IM Satbek Akhmedinov of Kazakhstan while playing white.
Meanwhile, another experienced Indian GM, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, campaigned at the first game of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025. He defeated GM Ahmad Ahmadzada of Azerbaijan in a hard-fought victory in the midgame, finishing the round in just 37 moves.
GM Raunak Sadhwani survived against South African FM Daniel Barrish after finishing with a draw in 56 moves.
Indian results of Round-1, Game-1
- GM Divya Deshmukh 0-1 GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre)
- GM Pranav V 1-0 Ala Eddine Boulrens (Alg)
- GM Raunak Sadhwani 0.5-0.5 FM Daniel Barrish (RSA)
- GM Pranesh M 1-0 IM Satbek Akhmedinov (Kaz)
- GM Narayanan SL 0.5-0.5 IM Steven Rojas (Per)
- GM Karthik Venkataraman 0.5-0.5 GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja (Cub)
- GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly 1-0 GM Ahmad Ahmadzada (AZE)
- IM Neelash Saha 0-1 GM Georg Meier (Uru)
- IM Aronyak Ghosh 0-1 GM Mateusz Bartel (Pol)
- IM Himal Gusain 0-1 GM Andy Woodward (USA)
- GM Leon Luke Mendonca 0.5-0.5 IM Shixu B Wang (Chn)
- GM Iniyan Pa 1-0 GM Dylan Berdayes (Cub)
(Inputs sourced from The Hindu & The Bridge)
