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Wei Yi Knocks Out Arjun, Advances With Sindarov, Esipenko
Wei was the first to win in the Quarterfinal tiebreaks. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.

Wei Yi Knocks Out Arjun, Advances With Sindarov, Esipenko

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NM AnthonyLevin
| 34 | Chess Event Coverage

GMs Wei Yi, Javokhir Sindarov, and Andrey Esipenko will join GM Nodirbek Yakubboev in the 2025 FIDE World Cup Semifinals after winning their quarterfinal matches in tiebreaks. Respectively, they defeated GMs Arjun Erigaisi, Jose Martinez, and Sam Shankland.

Wei dominated his match and won in two games, while Sindarov had to fight back from a loss to reach the 10+10 portion. Shankland won on demand with Black against Esipenko, but wasn't able to do it again in the second set of tiebreaks.

After a rest day, the first classical game of the Semifinals is on Friday, November 21, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.

Quarterfinal Results

Uzbekistan is guaranteed to send at least one player to the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament, and depending on the third-place match, it could be two. All three qualification spots will go to players who have never played in the Candidates before.

Games, Results, and Bracket.

Arjun 1.5-2.5 Wei

The highest-rated matchup was, somewhat surprisingly, the first to end. Wei dominated; he mounted a decisive attack in game one, but Arjun survived with a draw, and then Wei again outplayed the number-two seed to win with Black in game two.

The number-two seed has been eliminated. Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni/Chess.com.

Wei told FIDE that he was "lucky" even to reach the tiebreaks. He referenced the second classical game, on Monday, where he was essentially one move away from being eliminated, but Arjun missed the continuation starting with 24.Bxd5!. The Chinese number-one survived and said, "After yesterday, I thought, if I lost then I have no chance, so today it's my real chance, so I will try my best and also maybe he felt upset after yesterday."

Game one was an opening disaster for Arjun in the French Defense, and Wei said he thought he was already winning by move 13. After trading queens, however, it was Arjun who managed to save an exchange-down endgame. Despite this one ending in a draw, we've selected this hard-fought battle as our Game of the Day, analyzed by GM Rafael Leitao. 

Wei said, "I was upset after the first game. Then I tried to adjust my mentality in the second game and luckily it worked," explaining what happened as follows: "He just pushed too much and I found some chances to fight." 41.Rf2?? was where Wei, with Black, started to take over, and although Arjun had a chance to miraculously save the game, it wasn't enough. The game ended with checkmate on the board.

With this latest elimination, GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu looks set to be the only Indian to qualify for the Candidates, through the 2025 FIDE Circuit. Arjun tweeted a single emoji after his loss.

The other two matches ended in the second set of tiebreaks, played at the 10+10 time control. 

Martinez 2.5-3.5 Sindarov

If there's one country that can celebrate early, it's Uzbekistan. The nation's number-two player, Sindarov, secured a spot in the Candidates, if not for himself then at least for his country.

Sindarov scored a big win for Uzbekistan. Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni/Chess.com.

As Sindarov recalled in his interview with FIDE, the last time an Uzbek player reached the Final was in 2004, when GM Rustam Kasimdzhanov won the FIDE World Chess Championship 2004 (defeating GM Michael Adams). Only a year later would the knockout event turn into what it is now, a qualification path to the Candidates rather than the world championship itself.

Martinez won the first game with the interesting opening choice of 1.b3, a move played more often at faster time controls than in classical. Sindarov said, "I think the first game was very bad for me because after the opening I didn't like my position," adding that he missed the maneuver 33.Nc7, bringing the knight to e6. From there, he fell into a nasty fork, even if the position was initially defensible.

"After losing, I was thinking, c'mon, you need to play a very good second game and I think in the second game I played really, really well for rapid," said Sindarov about winning on demand in the second 15+10 game. Martinez' premature 12...b5? push was quickly punished two moves later, and from there Sindarov won a pawn and kept control to win the game.

It was Martinez's first loss in the event, after 23 games undefeated. Sindarov said, "After the second game, I was feeling like, okay, he can also make mistakes, he's also human."

 I was feeling like, okay, he can also make mistakes, he's also human.

—Javokhir Sindarov

He went on to draw the first 10+10 and then win the second after Martinez, in an endgame on 27 seconds, blundered a pawn.

Esipenko 4-2 Shankland

Esipenko won game one, dropped game two, and then won both 10+10 games to win the match. He told FIDE, "To be honest, I didn't care. I have the same strategy as always, so I don't really care about the results. In general, I want to enjoy and have fun."

To be honest, I didn't care.

—Andrey Esipenko

Esipenko won game one with an outside passed pawn in the endgame. In game two, however, Shankland won on demand with the black pieces for the second time in Goa, the first being against GM Vidit Gujrathi three rounds earlier.

The Caro-Kann was the opening choice this time (Shankland employed the Philidor before), and it was pretty much a story of one mistake. 17.Qd3? gave Black the initiative (there was instead a beautiful double bishop sacrifice starting with 17.d6! to force a draw), and from there Shankland won a pawn and converted it in the endgame.

Esipenko said he wasn't too flustered by the loss and hit back hard the next game. Shankland got outplayed, seemed just about to survive for a moment when he traded into the heavy-piece endgame, but then collapsed with the weaker king and little time (under a minute). 

Shankland was unable to pull off the on-demand black win a second time. He redeployed his Philidor Defense but only got a worse position, which Esipenko converted to another full point.

We will not see an American qualify through the World Cup this year. Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni/Chess.com.

Shankland, a few hours after being eliminated, posted a message thanking his fans despite feeling devastated.

Next, Esipenko will play Wei in two days. His preparation? Watching Stranger Things with his second, GM David Paravyan, he told FIDE. He's seen the show already, but his second hasn't, and they're already four seasons in.

Speaking about the three Candidates spots, Esipenko said that longer matches would more likely favor the better players. He said, "That's why you have so many unexpected results in the tournament because in short distance everything can happen basically."

There's only a short distance left to go, with two matches in the event. Who will the three Candidates be? There's a hefty bit of prize money on the line as well.

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 GM 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.

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