Viswanathan Anand drops huge verdict on Pranav V's Chess World Cup campaign

Pranav Venkatesh's Chess World Cup 2025 campaign came to an end with a defeat in the second game of the fourth round against Uzbekistan's GM Nodirbek Yakubboev. The junior world champion was under pressure from the start and lost in 38 moves, playing with the black pieces. On move 26, he was inaccurate with his queen.

Then, on move 30, it went from bad to worse for him. On move 35, he made a blunder with his knight, and then he resigned after three moves. It was a heartbreaking end to the 19-year-old's campaign, but also a huge learning experience.

Praising him for his performance in the tournament, Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand wrote on X, "Pranav Venkatesh had a very good run in the World Cup. Today he declined a possible repetition and tried to continue with his extra pawn but this turned out badly. Nonetheless very good performance by him and hopefully a sign of more to come. At WACA @WacaChess, we are very happy that we have partnered with him in this journey. Congratulations to his Uzbek opponent Nodirbek Yakubboev on reaching the 5th round!"

Pranav sealed an easy 2-0 win against Algeria's Eddine Ala Boulrens in the opening round and then beat Norwegian GM Aryan Tari. He won the opening game, and then lost the second. In the decider, he won the opening encounter and then drew the next.

In the third round, he beat Lithuania's Titas Stremavicius. Their fixture also had a moment of controversy. The Indian GM didn't write down a few moves on his score sheet, and his opponent made an official complaint to the arbiters. Three arbiters resolved the issue, warning the Indian GM. Pranav ended up winning the game, and then drew the next.

Source: HindustanTimes
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