Panaji (Goa) [India], November 3 (ANI): Grandmaster Narayanan SL and GM Diptayan Ghosh won both their rapid games to clinch their spots in the second round of the FIDE World Cup 2025, while Aronyak Ghosh joined them with a clinical performance in the second stage of the Round 1 tiebreak here on Monday. Playing with black pieces in the first game, Narayanan put himself in the driver's seat to advance to the next round by beating IM Steven Rojas of Peru in 52 moves and then wrapped up the match with white, winning in just 22 moves. On the adjoining board, Diptayan Ghosh ground out a win in 70 moves in the first game against GM Peng Xiongjian of China, courtesy of his two advancing pawns in perfect position to revive his queen and then won the next in 46 moves as his opponent pressed hard to set up a second round clash against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. Speaking about his victory, Narayanan said, as quoted from a press release by FIDE, 'I thought I was a favourite in the tie-break. In the shorter format, I am pretty strong. It is not my words, but in general. Like when I feel down or something, I go to ChatGPT and check who is the stronger player in tiebreaks and this time also, according to ChatGPT, I was the favourite. My opponent was playing extremely well in the two classic games, and I was unsure about what to expect.' 'But I pushed to win with the black and then I was confident with white,' added Narayanan, who will now face GM Nikita Vitiugov of England in the next round. The FIDE World Cup 2025 is a single-elimination knockout tournament featuring 206 players from 82 countries competing for the coveted Viswanathan Anand Cup, named after the Indian legend. Six Indians - Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Pranav V, Raunak Sadhwani, Pranesh M, Karthik Venkatraman, Iniyan Pa - had already booked their second round spots on Sunday and will join eight others who had received a bye in the first round by virtue of being among the top-50 ranked players in the competition. India is already assured of one spot in the third round as Karthik will face GM Aravindh Chithambaram in the second round on Tuesday. On Monday, the Indian players put the best foot forward in the first game of the tie breaker, with Aronyak Ghosh, Diptayan Ghosh, and Lalith Babu MR winning their respective matches with white, while Narayanan SL won with black. Aronyak, who had registered an upset win over Polish GM Mateusz Bartel in the second classic game on Sunday to stay alive in the match, pinned his opponent's queen and king to a corner and forced him to resign after only 19 moves. Rithvik was the only Indian player to lose the opening game of the tiebreak, but he made amends by beating Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan with black pieces in 52 moves to stay in the hunt, while Aronyak suffered reversals in the second game.

In the second stage of rapid games, Aronyak played white and won the first game in 54 moves and then capitalised on Bartel's errors to win the second in just 20 moves to advance to the next round. He will now face GM Levon Aronian of the US. (ANI)