TN’s Karthik packs off Deac to advance in FIDE World Cup

PANAJI: GM Karthik Venkataraman continued his dream run in the FIDE World Cup 2025 as he defeated GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) in the second game of the tiebreaker with black pieces to advance to the fourth round on Sunday.

Karthik, who had drawn the first rapid game with white, pinned Deac’s king in one corner and made the most of the additional bishop on board to win in 43 moves.

“Classical game against Deac, it was not too well but I somehow managed to defend. But in both the rapid games I played well. I don’t know if I was objectively winning in the first game but I was clearly better. Second game was also smooth,” said Karthik, who will next face Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

Speaking about the pressure of playing the World Cup, the two-time National Champion, who had defeated compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram in second round, said “Chess players are not used to playing this kind of format. Normally it is Swiss or round robin and one can relax a bit. But here you are always under pressure that you can be eliminated and that pressure is a lot to handle.”

With Karthik’s victory, a total of five Indian players will be in action in the fourth round as the competition of the Viswanathan Anand Cup and three Candidate Sports heads towards the business end after a rest day on Monday.

However, it was heartbreak for Vidit Gujrathi and Narayanan SL. Vidit started the tiebreaker with a full point in the opening rapid game against Shankland, beating the American in 75 moves.

But in the second game, Vidit made a mistake with queen exchanges under time pressure and lost the second game in 49 moves, taking the match into a second set of rapid games. He then lost the sixth game with white pieces in 61 moves and was knocked out.