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Round 6: Arjun gets a quick draw against Yi
Arjun Erigaisi drew with China's Wei Yi in the FIDE World Cup quarter-finals, aiming for a decisive win in the next game to reach the semi-finals.
Mumbai: Arjun Erigaisi, the only Indian left in the FIDE World Cup in Goa, had a no-sweat, stress-free day as he played out a quick draw with China’s Wei Yi in the first classical game of their quarter-final on Monday.
Fifty-nine minutes and 31 moves was all it took for the second-seeded Indian to walk away with a draw, while using black pieces, after it was clear that the Chinese Grandmaster wasn’t in the mood either to be adventurous with white. So sure and swift was Erigaisi with his preparation and execution that he gained over five minutes on the clock, which stopped at 01:35:03, to what he started with.
With a spot in the semi-final that will also bring him within touching distance to being part of the Candidates next year, Erigaisi will turn up with white on Tuesday looking for a decisive result. The clinical Indian has finished the job in classical in three of his four wins so far, needing the faster tie-breaks only in his fourth-round win over Hungary’s Peter Leko.
Wei (Elo 2754), though, is a slightly stiffer test for Erigaisi (2773). The Indian and Chinese GMs had played each other twice at the 2025 Norway Chess, with both those games ending in draws in classical. Erigaisi got the Armageddon wins and the extra half points. The Indian finished fifth in that high-quality six-man field while the Chinese was last.
In the only decisive result of the day, Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev (2689) defeated German GM Alexander Donchenko (2641).
On Sunday, seasoned Indian GM Harikrishna Pentala (Elo 2690), seeded 24th, was knocked out by the 57th-seed (Elo 2644) in the tie-breaks of Round 5.
