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Esipenko Hits Back To Lead Candidates Battle
Esipenko forgot about his heartbreaking blunder the day before as he took the lead against Yakubboev. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Esipenko Hits Back To Lead Candidates Battle

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Colin_McGourty
| 33 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Andrey Esipenko recovered from his heartbreaking blunder the day before to beat GM Nodirbek Yakubboev. He now leads the battle for both third place in the 2025 FIDE World Cup and the final spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. In the title match, GM Wei Yi took over with the black pieces against GM Javokhir Sindarov, but in the end settled for a draw that leaves the players all square going into the second classical game on Tuesday. 

Game two of the final and third-place matches starts on Tuesday, November 25, at 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.

2025 FIDE World Cup Finals Results

The final is level, while Yakubboev must now win on demand on Tuesday to force tiebreaks in the third-place match.

Games, Results, and Bracket.

Sindarov ½-½ Wei Yi

Sindarov and Wei Yi are playing for the trophy and $120,000. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Despite all the upsets, the World Cup final features two 2700 players.

19-year-old Sindarov qualified for the FIDE Candidates Tournament and reached the final after losing just one of his 20 games, to GM Jose Martinez. The 16th seed has only faced lower-seeded opponents, since GM Yu Yangyi was seeded 17th, despite his rating having crept above Sindarov on the November rating list. 

Now Sindarov faces his toughest test yet, seventh-seed Wei, who went 24 games unbeaten and toppled three 2700-rated players to reach the final. His victims included the second-seed and local hero, GM Arjun Erigaisi.

The final began with a Petroff. Although Sindarov chose a relatively rare line against it, Wei flashed out some far-from-obvious moves, including a pawn sacrifice, to reach this position on move 20.

At this point, however, Wei admitted that his memory let him down:

He chose a complicated line, and I forgot the best move after he played 20.Bf2. Maybe 20...Bb5 was a mistake, maybe instead I should play 20...Bc6, but I wasn't sure during the game.

Wei spent 24 minutes, but his choice in fact gets the engine's stamp of approval, at least at relatively low depth. It was perhaps surprising, therefore, that Sindarov thought for even longer over his reply and then, a move later, made a move that led to the following position.

Wei's choice was eventually 24...Bxe4, which he called "an easy line, a draw line," but he had the interesting option of the temporary piece sac 24...Rxf4!. He'd seen it, but felt White should be OK. Our commentators also felt a draw was the most likely outcome, but only after some torture for Sindarov! 

It's been a long tournament! Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Instead we got some elegant tactics and the moral victory of ending a pawn up for Wei, though Sindarov was never really in danger.

That means the final will go to the second classical game, where one mistake could be fatal. Wei knows all about that, since he revealed he spotted the 53.Ne3! move that won him the previous match, against Esipenko, with just three seconds on his clock!

Esipenko 1-0 Yakubboev

Esipenko was immediately back to action after his blunder the day before. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

The players in the third-place match are the first to taste match defeat but remain in the event, and they have as a target the biggest prize still on offer in Goa—the final spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. Esipenko's loss was, of course, the most bitter.

He looked set to defeat Wei until blundering his rook and confessed that wasn't easy to get over, but he found a way:

For a few hours I didn’t feel well, to be honest, but then we went with my second to a restaurant. We had good food, then I had some beer, and after this I felt more or less fine, and then I watched Arsenal’s match against Tottenham, and my team [Arsenal] won, so I was very happy!

We had good food, then I had some beer, and after this I felt more or less fine!

—Andrey Esipenko

Yakubboev, meanwhile, had reached the Semifinals without defeating a higher-rated player before he fell to his countryman Sindarov. 

Yakubboev has been hugely impressive, however, and largely it's been based around ambitious openings in the classical games, with just two of his matches going to tiebreaks. He stuck to the same plan against Esipenko, going for a risky line of the Four Knights Sicilian.

FM Kamil Plichta's tweet was tempting fate, but included a key detail—his idea in the course of 10...c5 immediately, forcing 11.c4, and only then playing 11...Nb4 looks much more reliable than 10...Nb4!? followed by 11...c5. Next, when Yakubboev put his bishop on d5, it seemed to be asking for trouble, with the engine and our commentators crying out for 15.Nd6+!.

Esipenko later said he didn't really consider it and didn't realize it was so good, but his 15.Be3 was what he called "simple chess," a solid move to keep the advantage.

Yakubboev steered the game into a tricky endgame where he was fighting for a draw, but also played excellently and managed to equalize. The problem was the clock. As it ticked down, he eventually faced a puzzle he failed to solve. 

The key point here is that White struggles to improve his position, and the best option for Black is to do nothing or make a small improving move such as 30...h6. Instead Yakubboev played the most natural move in the position, 30...Ne5?!, aiming to put the knight on d3, but ran into the undermining 31.b3!.

Esipenko takes a break. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Black still had chances, but they were all based on accepting a miserable rook ending a pawn down. Instead Yakubboev tried to play energetically but saw his position crumble in the space of just a few moves. Esipenko's only worry was that he'd somehow repeat the disaster of the day before, and he noted, "I was very scared for my rook. I double-checked it like 10 times!"

Soon, however, it was time for Yakubboev to resign.

That's our Game of the Day, which GM Dejan Bojkov has analyzed below.


It was a welcome reversal of fortune for Esipenko, while the weather had also turned in Goa! 

Now Esipenko needs just a draw to reach the Candidates Tournament, but Yakubboev will have the white pieces as he tries to hit back and force tiebreaks. 

How to watch?
You can watch the event on Chess.com/TV. You can also enjoy the show on Chess24, on Twitch, or YouTube. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.

The live broadcast was hosted by GMs Judit Polgar and David Howell, and IM Anna Rudolf.

The 2025 FIDE World Cup, which takes place from November 1 to 26 in Goa, India, determines three spots in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. It is a 206-player single-elimination knockout tournament with eight rounds. Each match consists of two classical games followed by rapid and blitz tiebreaks if needed. The prize fund is $2 million.

Previous reports:

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Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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