Wei Yi
Wei Yi is the nominal favourite, currently rated 2753 and ranked 11th in the world. The 26-year-old was born on 2 June 1999, making him the oldest of the four semifinalists. But he was once considered a prodigy: he earned the GM title at the age of 13, and at 15 he became the youngest player ever to cross the 2700 Elo mark — a record that still stands.
Wei Yi | Photo: Michal Walusza
Wei Yi also attracted attention early in his career with his spectacular attacking play. For example, at the 2015 Hainan Danzhou tournament, he played a now-legendary attacking game against Lázaro Bruzón.
But despite his many early successes, Wei Yi has not yet managed to establish himself in the top ten — partly because he successfully completed a economics degree at the prestigious Tsinghua University between 2018 and 2024. During his studies, and due to the Covid pandemic, he did not play any international tournaments from 2019 to 2022. In 2024, however, he won the prestigious Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee.
In the October 2024 world rankings, Wei Yi reached a rating of 2763 Elo, the highest of his career. In the current live ratings he is not far from that mark, standing at 2757.4. His results since returning to regular tournament play suggest that he has not yet reached his full potential. All in all, he has good chances of winning the World Cup or at least qualifying for the Candidates Tournament — and he could perform well there, too.
Javokhir Sindarov
In second place on the virtual seeding list for the World Cup semifinals is the Uzbek GM Javokhir Sindarov. Like Wei Yi, he is a prodigy, and he earned the grandmaster title even earlier than the Chinese star: at the age of 12 years, 10 months and 8 days. Sindarov is also the youngest of the four semifinalists: on 8 December 2025, he will celebrate his 20th birthday.
Javokhir Sindarov | Photo: Michal Walusza
As with Wei Yi, Sindarov’s performance curve is pointing upward. In fact, his recent rise has been even steeper. With a current rating of 2721, Sindarov is ranked 25th in the world, just one point below his official career high of 2722, which he reached in July 2025. Virtually, however, he has already surpassed that mark: thanks to his results at the World Cup, he currently stands at 2725.8 in live ratings.
Nodirbek Yakubboev
Sindarov therefore enters his semifinal match as the nominal favourite against his 23-year-old compatriot Nodirbek Yakubboev, who was born on 23 January 2002. But Yakubboev’s performance curve is also rising sharply. So far, he has gained 12 Elo points at the World Cup, and with a live rating of 2701 he has crossed the 2700 mark for the first time in his career.
In recent years, Yakubboev has also impressed in a number of strong tournaments: in 2023 he won the Qatar Masters, in 2024 he shared first place at the UzChess Cup Masters with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, finishing a full point ahead of Sindarov. And this spring he won the Challengers event at the Prague Chess Festival, which means he will play in the Masters in February 2026.
Nodirbek Yakubboev | Photo: Michal Walusza
Andrey Esipenko
The nominally weakest of the four semifinalists is Andrey Esipenko, whose current rating of 2681 places him 41st in the world. However, Esipenko reached 2723 Elo in March 2022, and that shows his potential.
Moreover, Esipenko, born on 22 March 2002, already enjoyed success as a junior: he became European U10 champion in 2012, won the European U16 Championship in 2017, and also took the U16 World Championship title that same year.
At the World Cup he has eliminated a whole series of strong players: Nijat Abasov, a Candidate in 2024, as well as Pouya Idani, Vincent Keymer, Aleksey Grebnev and Sam Shankland.
Andrey Esipenko | Photo: Michal Walusza
Regardless of how the two semifinals end and who will play for the World Cup title, the losers will not be eliminated. Unlike in the six previous rounds, they get a second chance: they play for third place, and whoever wins that match qualifies for the Candidates Tournament.
But it is difficult to identify a clear favourite for the overall victory among these four players. All of them have enormous potential, all of them are still young, and none has yet reached the peak of their career. It is just as hard to name the three with the best chances of qualifying for the Candidates. In the mini-matches played in Goa, nerves, form, and luck are important factors.
However, like Matthias Blübaum, who qualified for the Candidates Tournament at the Grand Swiss in Samarkand, the four World Cup semifinalists have never played in the Candidates before. This stands in clear contrast to Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri, who have both taken part in previous Candidates cycles and are already qualified for 2026, as well as to Hikaru Nakamura and Praggnanandhaa, who also have Candidates experience and have their spots for 2026 virtually secured.
The Candidates will show how Blübaum and the three World Cup qualifiers perform against the established top players Caruana, Nakamura, Giri and Praggnanandhaa — and whether that speaks for or against the current qualification system.
