In perhaps the biggest upset of the 2025 Chess World Cup in Goa, Indian grandmaster Diptyan Ghosh defeated Russian Ian Nepomniatchi, a two-time favorite and two-time world championship runner-up. After Nepomniatchi drew with the Whites in their first Classic match on Tuesday, Diptayyan followed that up with a dominating performance on Wednesday to eliminate one of the heavy favorites at the event.
While playing for Black, Diptayan was instructed to “Morphy Defense” on Ruy Lopez by Nepomniachchi. From the start, it was the Indian who launched his movements and started to put pressure on the Russian with his precise play.
Watch: Ian Nepomniache resigns against Diptyan Ghosh
🚨 Sudden alert
Ian Nepomniatchi (2732) loses to 🇮🇳 Diptyan Ghosh (2573) in the second match and is eliminated from the tournament. #FIDEWorldCup! pic.twitter.com/Ar2z3fWjpm– International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 5, 2025
On the eighteenth move, Diptayan sacrifices his dark square bishop to gain rhythm and cut off White’s knight on d2.
By the time the contest entered the endgame, with the queens off the board, Diptayan was already in a much better position, with the engine showing a +2.0 advantage for him. At the end of the game with bishops of the opposite color and an extra pawn, the Indian had no real problem shifting smoothly. He continued to force exchanges with a physical advantage and eventually forced 12th seed Nepomniacci to quit on the 46th move, exiting in his first match. Nepomniatchi had a bye in the opening round, while Diptaiyan defeated China’s Peng Xiongjian in the tiebreakers.
The Kolkata GM described this result as the biggest day of his career. Speaking to Chessbase India after the win, Diptaiyan said: “This is probably the biggest day of my chess career.”
In other big results for the Indian team, Arjun Erejesi defeated Martin Petrov 2-0 to advance to the third round in style. In the battle between the classic world champion and the junior champion, between the Indian D. Gokish and Kazybek Nogrebek from Kazakhstan, the Indian outlasted his opponent in the second match and joined Arjun in the third round. R. Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi tied with their opponents, Timur Kuipukarov and Faustino Oro, respectively, as they head to the tie-break, which will be played tomorrow.
17 Indians are competing in the second round of the Chess World Cup.
© IE Online Media Services Pvt Ltd
(tags for translation) Chess
