FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 Highlights, Round 4 Game 2: Pranav, Karthik crash out; Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa & Harikrishna left in fray

Karthik Venkataraman is looking to salvage a completely losing position against Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem. A matter of time before he folds to leave only three Indians in the title hunt.

Heartbreak for Pranav V. He ceded to Uzbek Nodirbek Yakubboev and thus crashed out of the event. 20th Indian elimination in the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025.

After Harikrishna, Arjun Erigaisi ended his game to a draw against Peter Leko after failing to get any sort of breakthrough against the Hungarian. They, too, move to tiebreaks.

Among Indians in the fifth round, only Pranav V and Karthik are yet to finish their games.

Levon Aronian joins Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara in Round 5 after drawing his game against Polish GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek. He gets to 1.5 points after winning Game 1 and is through to the next round.

Karthik Venkataraman is also under pressure against Vietnam veteran GM Le Quang Liem. A -2.0 position for the Indian at the moment, with the queens still on the board.

Wow, a surprising result in Board No. 3. The Daniil Dubov vs R. Praggnanandhaa game, which was brewing up to have an exciting middle game, turned towards a sudden draw as the pair moved to tiebreaks that will take place on Thursday.

Daniil Dubov has a very strong bishop pair against Praggnanandhaa, who is a pawn up. The Indian moves his knight, offering to exchange it with white's bishop, but Dubov would likely keep his menacing bishop pair. An extra pawn for Praggnanandhaa, for now, is ensuring that the position remains in equality, but the Russian can switch gears anytime with the pieces he has. Pragg needs to be very careful here.

The time game has widened in the game between Arjun Erigaisi and Peter Leko. The Hungarian is 30 minutes behind Arjun and has offered an exchange of queens. The ball is in Arjun's court, as he has to come up with a decision.

1. e4 e5

2. Nf3 Nc6

3. Bc4 Nf6

4. d3 h6

5. c3 g6

6. d4 exd4

7. e5 Nh7

8. O-O Bg7

9. cxd4 O-O

10. Nc3 d6

11. h3d xe5

12. dxe5 Qxd1

13. Rxd1 Nxe5

14. Nxe5 Bxe5

15. Bxh6 Re8

16. Re1

It has been 15 moves in Praggnanandhaa vs Daniil Dubov and the Indian has played with 100% accuracy with black pieces against the Russian. It is extraordinary stuff. Dubov, too, has 99% accuracy in this position.

After putting Praggnanandhaa under tremendous pressure in Game 1, Russian Daniil Dubov has seemed to have come up with another good plan against the Indian. He is ahead on the clock after rushing his initial moves. Praggnanandhaa has taken some time, but has played with phenomenal accuracy to prove himself more than an equal match for all the challenges thrown in his way.

After ending their Game 1 in a draw in just 20 moves, Arjun Erigaisi and Peter Leko are moving ahead rapidly for another fast-paced game. Arjun has nearly 1 hour and 32 minutes, while Peter Leko also has an hour and 21 minutes, and we have already seen 16 moves on the board. The pair have exchanged three pawns, opposite colour bishops and one knight to move quickly into the middle game. This is an exciting board to follow today unless they decide to end the game to a draw in next few minutes.

A few minutes ago, Game 2 of Round 4 began as all five Indians require either a win or a draw to be on the safe side after drawing their Game 1 matches. A win would take them to Round 5, while a draw would enforce a tiebreak.

Hello and welcome back to our live coverage of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025 event taking place in Goa. An event which started with 24 Indians and 206 players around the world is now left with 32 players and five Indians.

Big names like D. Gukesh, Anish Giri, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Hans Niemann, Vidit Gujrathi have all been eliminated as the three rounds threw a string of surprises. Among Indians, we are now left with Arjun Erigaisi, R. Praggnanandhaa, Harikrishna Pentala, Pranav V and Karthik Venkataraman

Stay tuned as we bring you all the live updates from the Game 2 of Round 4.