Ian Nepomniachtchi's second-round exit at the ongoing Chess World Cup 2025 prompted the Russian GM to criticise the tournament organisers for the playing and living conditions provided to players in Goa. Meanwhile, world no. 3 Fabiano Caruana, who decided to skip the event, and Christian Chirila alleged on their C Squared Podcast that some players told them there were bedbugs in the hotel.
Since then, chess Vassily Ivanchuk, who also crashed out of the second round, took a different stance. The Ukrainian GM praised the tournament organisers in a press conference and blamed his elimination on his performance in the round.
Also Read: Vassily Ivanchuk backs Chess World Cup organisers after Ian Nepomniachtchi's controversial criticism
Dutch GM Anish Giri also labelled the complaints as 'funny', and also slammed Caruana's claim.
Speaking on ChessBase India and Chess.com India's live stream, he said, "I’d be lying if I said that it was not a challenge to play in India for Western players. But it’s the same, the other way around."
"Obviously I knew there will be some challenges playing in India. Things like jet lag and different food. But it’s fair, because when I play in my cold city of Wijk aan Zee (at the Tata Steel Chess tournament), there are Indians playing there and suffering without Indian food. It’s too cold for them there. It’s the same situation, but the reverse. But it was not too hot here. The food was reasonably diverse with Western dishes too like pasta etc. The spice level was not as high as I was fearing. My main issue was jet lag. Now I have completely recovered from jet lag. I have mosquito repellant too. I’m completely ready. But now I have a flight back home (after being eliminated)."
{{/usCountry}}"Obviously I knew there will be some challenges playing in India. Things like jet lag and different food. But it’s fair, because when I play in my cold city of Wijk aan Zee (at the Tata Steel Chess tournament), there are Indians playing there and suffering without Indian food. It’s too cold for them there. It’s the same situation, but the reverse. But it was not too hot here. The food was reasonably diverse with Western dishes too like pasta etc. The spice level was not as high as I was fearing. My main issue was jet lag. Now I have completely recovered from jet lag. I have mosquito repellant too. I’m completely ready. But now I have a flight back home (after being eliminated)."
{{/usCountry}}Responding to Caruana and Chirila's statement, he said, "People who are not here (Caruana and Chirila), they said that there are bedbugs here. It’s kinda funny because they’re not even here, they’re there (In the USA)! They’re telling us that ‘you guys have bedbugs’. And now we’re in a state of panic: ‘where are the bedbugs?’ Some American guy is telling us that we have bedbugs here. And they’re saying that multiple sources have told them. I am like maybe it’s just one person who told many others and that’s why they’re hearing it from everywhere. I don’t have bedbugs in my room as far as I know."
He added, "My hope is that somebody here was on the bed, and saw some bug near the bed and they thought ‘I’m on the bed, this is a bug, so it must be a bedbug.’ Maybe a mosquito flying over the bed and they thought it was a bedbug. Cristian and Fabi are like, ‘We’ve qualified for the Candidates. And now you guys have bedbugs’. And here we are looking for bedbugs. Some of these things are exaggerated… just ridiculous. I heard that somebody said that to go to the toilet you have to go outside in the heat (and into another building). But actually, the toilet is just literally five metres away from the playing hall? You don’t even want the toilet any closer, it would be smelling, yeah?"
Giri, on the other hand, crashed out after a Round 3 defeat to GM Alexander Donchenko.