FIDE World Cup: Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa & P Harikrishna Eye Glory In 4th Round

Last Updated:November 10, 2025, 11:07 IST

Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, and P Harikrishna lead India’s charge in FIDE World Cup round 4, facing Peter Leko, Daniil Dubov, and Nils Grandelius respectively.

FIDE World Cup: Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa (PTI)

India’s leading Grandmasters Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, and P Harikrishna aim to extend their impressive performances as the fourth round of the FIDE World Cup begins after the first rest day.

Arjun, the country’s highest-rated player, is favoured against the veteran Hungarian Peter Leko, while Praggnanandhaa faces the inventive Daniil Dubov, who is competing under the FIDE flag. Harikrishna, the most experienced among them, takes on Sweden’s Nils Grandelius, aiming to stay in contention.

Leko, a formidable player around 20 years ago, is showing signs of his prime but may find it challenging against Arjun, who favours extreme complexities. The 46-year-old Leko defeated Bobby Cheng of Australia and Kirill Alekseenko of Austria without any tiebreak games, highlighting his quality of play.

Interestingly, Leko is semi-retired, and his protégé Vincent Keymer of Germany is also in the fourth round, making it a rare case of ‘Guru and Shisya’ progressing deep in a knockout competition.

Arjun won both his matches without tiebreakers. He has won three of his four games thus far under classical time control, eliminating Martin Petrov of Bulgaria and Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan.

Crowd favourite R Praggnanandhaa is set to meet Dubov, known for his theoretical work. The Russian is also a dangerous opponent in faster time controls, excelling in two tiebreak marathons against Bai Jinshi of China and Georg Meier of Uruguay.

Praggnanandhaa was close to elimination in his second-round match against Uzbek-Australian Temur Kuybokarov but survived in the tiebreaker and went on to defeat Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia in the third round.

Harikrishna had a smooth path to the round of 32, with comprehensive victories over Arseniy Nesterov of Russia and Daniel Dardha of Belgium. His strategy of winning with white and drawing with black has served him well, and he will rely on his immense experience to overcome Grandelius in the fourth round.

World junior champion V Pranav and 109th seed Venkatraman Karthik have also impressed, reaching the fourth round after playing three matches each. Arjun, Praggnanandhaa, and Harikrishna were directly seeded into the second round at the start of the competition.

Pranav defeated Algerian Ada Eddine Boulrens and Norwegian Aryan Tari in the first two rounds, then delivered a stellar performance against Titas Stremavicius of Lithuania, winning the first game and securing an easy draw in the return game.

Karthik’s victories include Aravindh Chithambaram and Deac Bogdan Daniel, and he hopes to perform at his best against Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

In other notable matches, Keymer will face Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran, while Levon Aronian, the Armenian-turned-American, takes on Radoslav Wojtaszek of Poland.

Complete pairings round 4 (Indians unless specified):

Frederic Svane (Ger) vs Shant Sargysyan (Arm); Peter Leko (Hun) vs Arjun Erigaisi; R Praggnanandhaa vs Daniil Dubov (Fid); Matthias Bluebaum (Ger) vs Alexander Domchenko (Ger); V Pranav vs Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb); Andrey Esipenko (Fid) Vincent Keymer (Ger); Wei Yi (Chn) vs Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri); Alexey Sarana (Fid) vs Jose Eduardo Martinez Alacantra (Mex); Nils Grandelius (Swe) vs P Harikrishna; Samuel Sevian (Usa) vs Lorenzo (Lodici (Ita); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) vs Aleksy Grebnev (Fid); Awonder Liang (Usa) vs Gabriel Sargissian (Arm); Le Quang Liem (Vie) vs V Karthik; Sam Shankland (Usa) vs Richard Rapport (Hun); Levon Aronian (Usa) vs Radoslav Wojtaszek (Pol); Yu Yangyi (Chn) vs Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb).

(With inputs from Agencies)

Ritayan Basu

Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin...Read More

Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin...

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