PANAJI: GM Arjun Erigaisi and P Harikrishna came up with near perfect play with white while world champion Gukesh D played out a draw with black pieces in the opening game of Round 3 in the FIDE World Cup 2025 here on Friday.
Arjun, the highest ranked Indian in the fray, defeated Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov in 30 moves while Harikrishna once again showed his command on preparation to beat GM Daniel Dardha of Belgium in 25 moves to put themselves in the drivers’ seat to reach the fourth round.
Arjun had won both his matches in the second round after getting a bye in the first, never looked in any trouble against Vokhidov and the only time he pondered over his move for more than 10 minutes was when he was on the verge of winning and was looking at ways to finish it quickly and make it three wins in three games in the competition.
A few minutes earlier, Harikrishna had become the first player to register a win in the third round. The 39-year-old caught his opponent by surprise in a Sicilian Classical variation and forced him to resign very quickly.
“I had prepared something new. Of course there was help for me but I could not recall all the moves in this variation. But there were some nice tricks that happened and some moves my opponent missed. Basically, he didn’t realise the danger properly in the game,” said Harikrishna after the match.
Among the other Indians in the fray, world champion D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi played out draws with black pieces and will now have a chance to go for a win with white to reach the next round.