Chess: Aronyak upsets GM Bartel

Panaji: The experienced GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Raunak Sadhwani and Karthik Venkatraman scored comfortable victories to advance to the second round of the FIDE World Cup 2025 here on Sunday.

IM Aronyak Ghosh defeated GM Mateusz Bartel of Poland.

The 42-year-old Ganguly, playing with black pieces, knew that Ahmad Ahmadzada had to take risks to draw level after losing the opening game and the Indian took control of the match by attacking from his opponent’s king side and forced him to resign after just 28 moves.

He will face French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France.

Karthik, who had drawn his opening game against GM Roberto Garia Pantoja on Saturday, forced his opponent to resign after 39 moves to set up a second round clash against compatriot GM Aravindh Chithambaram VR.

Also advancing to the next round was Sadhwani. The 19-year-old from Nagpur had managed to draw the opening game against FM Daniel Barrish of South Africa despite making errors.