Sam Shankland of the USA showed Indian GM Vidit Gujrathi the exit door in the third round of the FIDE World Cup in Goa on Sunday.
The 31-year-old went down 2.5-3.5 loss to the American Shankland in the second
set of tie-break games, while Narayanan also had to concede defeat against Yangyi Yu of China in the first set of tie-break games. However, V Karthik continued his dream run, defeating Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania 1.5-0.5.
Sam Shankland 🇺🇸 takes down Vidit Gujrathi 🇮🇳 1.5–0.5 in the tiebreaks and moves on to Round 4! #FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/vBEC2X0L9E
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 9, 2025
Karthik advanced to the fourth round, leaving five Indians in the competition after the first three rounds. The two favourites, Arjun Erigaisi and R Praggnanandhaa, along with P Harikrishna, who has shown sublime form, and world junior champion V Pranav, who is emerging as the next big Indian star, have already qualified by winning their games in the classical format.
The next challenge for the five remaining Indians will be the last 32 stage of the event, which started with 206 players. With the top three slots available for the next Candidates’ tournament, the upcoming battles promise to be even more exciting.
Meanwhile, Gujrathi became the third significant Indian casualty in the tournament following the eliminations of world champion D Gukesh, who lost in classical games to Frederic Svane of Germany, and Aravindh Chithambaram, who was defeated by Karthik as early as round two.
For V Karthik, this tournament is proving to be a once-in-a-lifetime event, as one more victory will take him to the pre-quarterfinals.
Complete results for round 3:
D Gukesh lost to Svane Frederic (Ger) 0.5-1.5;
Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb) drew with Arjun Erigaisi 0.5-1.5;
R Praggnanandhaa beat Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm) 1.5-0.5;
M Pranesh lost to Vincent Keymer (Ger) 0.5-1.5
Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) beat Diptayan Ghosh 1.5-0.5
Yangyi Yu (Chn) beat S L Narayanan 1-1, 1.5-0.5
Sam Shankland (Usa) beat Vidit Gujrathi 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5
Titas Stremavicius (Ltu) drew with V Pranav 0.5-1.5
(With Inputs From Agenices)
