There are 64 players heading into round three of the 2025 FIDE World Cup after round two tiebreaks, where another 27 players were eliminated on Thursday. The upset of the day was GM Lorenzo Lodici‘s (2572) match win against GM Hans Niemann (2729). One match went the full distance and reached the first armageddon tiebreak of the event; GM Rasmus Svane prevailed after nine games against GM Rauf Mamedov.
This is a flash report. The full article, including game analysis, interviews, photographs, and more, will be added to this page soon.
The first classical of round three is on Friday, November 7, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.
Round 2 Tiebreak Matches
| Board | Player 1 | Result | Player 2 | Winner Will Face |
| 1 | Praggnanandhaa R | 5-3 | Temur Kuybokarov | Robert Hovhannisyan |
| 2 | Denis Makhnyov | 1.5-2.5 | Nodirbek Abdusattorov | Jose Martinez |
| 3 | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov | 3-1 | Gergely Kantor | Nils Grandelius |
| 4 | Lorenzo Lodici | 2.5-1.5 | Hans Niemann | Michael Adams |
| 5 | Yu Yangyi | 4.5-3.5 | Felix Blohberger | S L Narayanan |
| 6 | Vidit Gujrathi | 2.5-1.5 | Faustino Oro | Sam Shankland |
| 7 | Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis | 2.5-1.5 | Nihal Sarin | Aleksey Grebnev |
| 8 | Sam Sevian | 3-1 | Tin Jingyao | Evgeniy Najer |
| 9 | Bai Jinshi | 2-4 | Daniil Dubov | Georg Meier |
| 10 | Mustafa Yilmaz | 2.5-1.5 | Bu Xiangzhi | Shant Sargsyan |
| 11 | Shant Sargsyan | 3.5-2.5 | Jorge Cori | Mustafa Yilmaz |
| 12 | Pouya Idani | 4.5-3.5 | Karthikeyan Murali | Andrey Esipenko |
| 13 | Grigoriy Oparin | 1.5-2.5 | Daniel Dardha | Pentala Harikrishna |
| 14 | Rasmus Svane | 6-5 | Rauf Mamedov | Awonder Liang |
| 15 | Bogdan-Daniel Deac | 2.5-1.5 | Aydin Suleymanli | Karthik Venkataraman |
| 16 | Radoslaw Wojtaszek | 2.5-1.5 | Maxime Lagarde | Vladimir Fedoseev |
| 17 | S L Narayanan | 5-3 | Nikita Vitiugov | Yu Yangyi |
| 18 | Nikolas Theodorou | 2.5-1.5 | Aleksandar Indjic | Javokhir Sindarov |
| 19 | Maxim Rodshtein | 2-4 | Gabriel Sargissian | Diptayan Ghosh |
| 20 | Haik Martirosyan | 1.5-2.5 | Vladislav Artemiev | Maxime Vachier-Lagrave |
| 21 | Michael Adams | 6-4 | Ivan Cheparinov | Lorenzo Lodici |
| 22 | Etienne Bacrot | 1.5-2.5 | Nils Grandelius | Shakhriyar Mamedyarov |
| 23 | Jose Martinez | 4.5-3.5 | Velimir Ivic | Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
| 24 | Dmitrij Kollars | 1-3 | Pranesh M | Vincent Keymer |
| 25 | Aryan Tari | 1.5-2.5 | Pranav Venkatesh | Titas Stremavicius |
| 26 | Robert Hovhannisyan | 3-1 | Raunak Sadhwani | Praggnanandhaa R |
| 27 | Shamsiddin Vokhidov | 3-1 | Maksim Chigaev | Arjun Erigaisi |
GM Rafael Leitao goes over the full Game of the Day below. (It will be added later).
Who’s Eliminated?
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 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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