FIDE World Cup 2025: Arjun defeats Aronian with black to reach quarters; Harikrishna to play tiebreak
In the latest round of the FIDE World Cup 2025, Indian top‑seeded Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pushed former world‑cup champion Levon Aronian into a tense struggle and then turned the tables in the final moves to secure a spot in the quarter‑finals.
After a level opening game of round five, Erigaisi started the second match as black and built a nasty attack. He lured Aronian’s king into the h‑file corner and, with a coordinated queen, bishop and knight, forced Aronian to resign after just 38 moves. “It was a tense middle‑game. I felt he was comfortable with a draw, so I kept going,” Erigaisi said. Now he will face the winner of the Wei Yi vs. Samuel Sevian fixture.
The round also produced several clear winners. China’s Wei Yi beat the USA’s Samuel Sevian in 73 moves, Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev defeated Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian with the white pieces in 35 moves, and Uzbek GM Sindarov Javokhir overcame Germany’s Svane Frederik in 47 moves.
Indian play continued outside the Erigaisi-Aronian match. Grandmaster P Harikrishna, playing white against Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara, was blocked by a solid defence. After 35 moves both players agreed to a draw, matching the result of their first meeting. With only a draw possible in the remaining games, Harikrishna will now face a rapid tiebreak to determine who progresses.
These matches bring the World Cup closer to the quarter‑final stage, with Indian players taking a significant share of the action. Fans can look forward to the rush of rapid games that will decide the next set of finalists.
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