Arpora (Goa), Nov 1 (IANS) World Junior champion GM Pranav V, GM Pranesh M., and the experienced GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly began their FIDE World Cup 2025 campaigns with comfortable victories, while women’s World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh’s spirited fight wasn’t enough to salvage a draw in the first match of the opening round here on Saturday.

Local favourite Leon Luke Mendonca could not convert his chances and split points against China’s Shixu B. Wang after 50 moves.

Pranav, the highest-ranked Indian player in action on Day 1 of the competition, defeated IM Ala Eddine Boulrens of Algeria. Ganguly controlled the middle game against GM Ahmad Ahmadzada of Azerbaijan to eke out a hard-fought win while Pranesh defeated IM Satbek Akhmedinov of Kazakhstan in 48 moves.

Playing white, Pranav faced the Slav Defence and controlled the game throughout to clinch a point. Ganguly went with a Ruy Lopez against Ahmadzada and wrapped up the point in just 37 moves.

The FIDE World Cup 2025 is played as a single-elimination knock-out tournament with 206 players from 82 countries vying for the coveted Viswanathan Anand Cup, named after the Indian legend.

With the top-50 players in the competition getting a bye in the opening round, all eyes were on how the next group of Indian players began their campaign and whether Divya, the only woman in the fray, could spring a surprise against higher-rated GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis.

Divya came under pressure as Stamatis outplayed her in midgame, once she blundered with a pawn exchange on the 17th move, salvaging half a point was always going to be difficult.

To her credit, the 19-year-old did not give up and forced a rook-pawn ending despite the time pressure. But Stamatis always retained the upper hand with an advancing pawn on the b-file and ultimately forced the Indian to resign after 41 moves.

While Divya succumbed to the pressure, GM Raunak Sadhwani survived an error against South African FM Daniel Barrish and settled for a draw in 56 moves.

Among the foreign stars in fray, Argentina’s Faustino Oro, the youngest competitor in Goa, held Brkic Ante with black pieces while Turkey’s rising star GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus showed why he is so highly talked about by taking control of his opening match against Nagi Abugenda as early as the 10th move and then forcing him to resign seven moves later.

Indian results (Round 1)

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 Leon Luke Mendonca 0.5:0.5 IM Shixu B Wang (Chn); GM Narayanan SL 0.5:0.5 IM Steven Rojas (Per); GM Iniyan Pa 1:0 GM Dylan Berdayes (Cub);

GM Karthik Venkataraman 0.5:0.5 GM Roberto Garcia Pantoja (Cub); GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly 1:0 GM Ahmad Ahmadzada (AZE); IM Aronyak Ghosh 0:1 GM Mateusz Bartel (Pol); GM Divya Deshmukh 0:1 GM Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre); IM Himal Gusain 0:1 GM Andy Woodward (USA); IM Neelash Saha 0:1 GM Georg Meier (Uru).

–IANS

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