The Greatest Surprises In Chess World Cup History
The 2025 Chess World Cup is scheduled to begin on October 30 in Goa, India. Two hundred and six of the best players in the world will compete in a knockout event, with the top 50 seeds receiving a first-round bye. This will be the 11th edition of this prestigious event, which has always been won by a world-class player.
However, the FIDE World Cup is also a rare opportunity for "normal grandmasters" to compete against the world's top players. Every year, there are numerous upsets and miraculous victories for players rated hundreds of points below their famous opponents. Let's celebrate the greatest runs by the lower seeds in the history of the World Cup.
- The Best Result By A 2200
- The Best Result By A 2300
- The Best Result By A 2400
- The Best Result By A 2500
- The Best Result By A 2600
The Best Result By A 2200: Mwali Strikes Back
IM Chitumbo Mwali represented Zambia in the 2021 World Cup. He entered the event with a rating of 2281, 367 points lower than his GM opponent, Haik Martirosyan. Predictably, he lost the first game and needed to win on demand in game two to send the match to tiebreaks. Shockingly, he did just that, dominating the game and scoring the biggest single-game upset in World Cup history!
As expected, Martirosyan took care of business in the tie-breaks, eliminating Mwali, but not before he had a once-in-a-lifetime story to tell.
The Best Results By 2300s: Hesham And Leiva Win Matches
IM Giuseppe Leiva and GM Abdelrahman Hesham are the two players rated below 2400 to ever win matches in the World Cup. Hesham scored the biggest match upset in World Cup history to that point in 2021 against GM Ahmed Adley. Both players were Egyptian and knew each other well, which may have helped Hesham overcome a 228-point rating gap! You can see the decisive tiebreak game below with notes by Peter Doggers.
In 2023, Leiva became just the second player under 2400 to advance, and the first who had not earned the GM title. In the first round, he played GM Anton Demchenko, rated 2623, a full 249 points higher-rated. Leiva struck in the very first game, winning a pawn and converting it to victory. He held a draw in the second game to take the match, the biggest upset by rating in World Cup history.
The Best Result by A 2400: Gadimbayli Wins Twice
GM Abdulla Gadimbayli entered the 2023 World Cup rated 2483 and seeded 158th. That meant he would play up more than 100 points in the first round against GM Shamsiddin Vokhidov. Gadimbayli had no trouble and defeated Vokhidov in the first set of tiebreak games. In the next round, he faced an opponent 208 points above him, GM David Anton Guijarro. Amazingly, Gadimbayli won just as quickly. This was the back-and-forth struggle that decided the match.
Best Result By A 2500: Ivic Wins Four Rounds
He wasn't well known entering the 2021 World Cup, but GM Velimir Ivic made a name for himself.
Wait, Velimir Ivic is his full name? I thought everyone was just calling him by his last name, Velimirivic!
— Kostya Kavutskiy (@hellokostya) July 24, 2021
In the first round, Ivic played down against American GM Robert Hungaski and won in two games. The second round was expected to be difficult, as he faced the experienced super GM Francisco Vallejo Pons, rated 2710. Yet again, Ivic won in just two games. In round three, he played up again, this time against future world championship candidate, GM Matthias Bluebaum. Once again, Ivic won in classical, 1.5-0.5. His biggest challenge yet came in round four against GM Dmitry Andreikin, who had reached the finals of the 2013 World Cup. This one required tiebreaks, but Ivic won yet again, 3-1! Check out notes to the critical game by GM Dejan Bojkov.
Ivic was finally stopped in the sixth round by GM Vladimir Fedoseev, who made it all the way to the semifinals.
The Best Result By A 2600: Praggnanandhaa Nearly Wins The Whole Thing
Nowadays, he's a well-known name, often winning top-level tournaments, but just two years ago, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu entered the World Cup rated 2690, making him just the 31st seed. That didn't stop him from nearly winning the whole thing, beating the two top American players, GM Hikaru Nakamura and GM Fabiano Caruana, along the way. Here's Nakamura's recap of the key game.
Praggnanandhaa met Caruana in the semifinals and, after drawing the classical games, impressed with a very clean win in the tiebreaks.
Praggnanandhaa made it all the way to the finals before losing in tiebreaks against GM Magnus Carlsen. This earned him a spot in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. And now that he's an established player, he's likely to be back again in the next Candidates as well.
Who do you expect to be the breakout star this year? Let us know in the comments.
