Panaji: Grandmaster Andrey Esipenko of Russia registered crushing back-to-back wins over Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev in the third-place match, while China’s Wei Yi will fight it out against the other Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov in the tiebreak on Wednesday to decide the FIDE World Cup champion.
Esipenko continued his dominant performance after a major hiccup against Wei Yi in the semifinals, where he blundered a rook in a winning position in the second tiebreak game. Showing commendable composure, he recovered to beat Yakubboev twice, booking his spot in the Candidates and earning USD 60,000 compared to Yakubboev’s USD 50,000. The entry of Esipenko in the Candidates is significant as currently there are no Russians in the top ten of the world. Esipenko had to fight tough games and stayed firm to make it to the last eight that will decide the challenger to world champion D Gukesh.
The only Indian in the mix is going to be R Praggnanandhaa for the ultimate crown of world champion, while the likes of American duo of Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri are already in the fray. agencies