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Twelve-year-old IM Faustino Oro, the youngest participant in the 2025 FIDE World Cup, is among the 20 players who advance to round two after tiebreaks. He defeated GM Ante Brkic 5-3 in one of the longest matches. The matchups only get harder from here, as the top-50 seeds begin their tournament in round two, and Oro faces GM Vidit Gujrathi next.
The first classical game of round two is on Tuesday, November 4, starting at 4:30 a.m. ET / 10:30 CET / 3 p.m. IST.
The winners of the tiebreak matches are presented in bold.
Tiebreak Matches
| Board | Player 1 | Result | Player 2 | Winner Will Face |
| 1 | Robert Hovhannisyan | 2.5-1.5 | Kavin Mohan | Raunak Sadhwani |
| 2 | Daniil Yuffa | 5-3 | Shiyam Thavandiran | Jeffery Xiong |
| 3 | S L Narayanan | 3-1 | Steven Rojas | Nikita Vitugov |
| 4 | Cristobal Henriquez | 2.5-1.5 | Uurtsaikh Agibileg | Alexey Sarana |
| 5 | Aldiyar Ansat | 1-3 | Jorge Cori | Shant Sargsyan |
| 6 | Karen Grigoryan | 3.5-4.5 | Ahmed Adly | Matthias Bluebaum |
| 7 | Alisher Suleymenov | 2.5-1.5 | Arturs Neiksans | Jorden van Foreest |
| 8 | Jegor Lashkin | 1-3 | Jingyao Tin | Sam Sevian |
| 9 | R Babu Lalith | 3-5 | Max Warmerdam | Awonder Liang |
| 10 | Faustino Oro | 5-3 | Ante Brkic | Vidit Gujrathi |
| 11 | Aronyak Ghosh | 4-2 | Mateusz Bartel | Levon Aronian |
| 12 | Luis Paulo Supi | 2.5-1.5 | Sion Galaviz | Richard Raport |
| 13 | Jose Cardoso | 1.5-2.5 | Baadur Jobava | Liem Le |
| 14 | Diptayan Ghosh | 3-1 | Xiongjian Peng | Ian Nepomniachtchi |
| 15 | Diego Flores | 1.5-2.5 | Denis Makhnyov | Nodirbek Abdusattorov |
| 16 | Sergei Lobanov | 1.5-2.5 | Kacper Piorun | Wei Yi |
| 17 | Titas Stremavicus | 2.5-1.5 | Sebastian Bogner | Wesley So |
| 18 | Emre Can | 1-3 | Bojan Maksimovic | Anish Giri |
| 19 | Temur Kuybokarov | 3-1 | Jan Subelj | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu |
| 20 | Raja Rithvik | 3-5 | Kazybek Nogerbek | Gukesh Dommaraju |
14 players moved to round two after the first two games of 15+10, while six matches progressed to the later stages. No matches reached the 3+2 time control.
The first players to advance were GMs Robert Hovhannisyan, Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan, Cristobal Henriquez, Jorge Cori, Alisher Suleymenov, Jingyao Tin, Luis Supi, Baadur Jobava, Diptayan Ghosh, Denis Makhnyov, Kacper Piorun, Titas Stremavicus, Temur Kuybokarov, and IM Bojan Maksimovic, all finishing in the 15+10 portion.
The elimination of GM Arturs Neiksans, by Suleymenov, is bittersweet. It's of course not what the Latvian GM wanted, but it also means he'll be able to join our broadcast to commentate on future rounds.
Suleymenov eliminated Neiksans. Photo: Michal Walusza/FIDE.
The most dominant scores were put up by Narayanan, Cori, Tin, Diptayan, Maksimovic, and Kuybokarov, who all won with 2-0 sweeps. Narayanan won a 22-move miniature in the second game, with White.
Despite a nearly 200-point difference, Narayanan said that the match was far from easy—a sentiment we've heard from the favorites throughout round one. As the favorite, he got no real chances in the classical portion and said, "He really impressed me with his games. His style is more of a fighter, never giving up, plus his motivation made him play extremely well," and added, "The level of resistance he displayed was much above his FIDE Elo for sure."
Narayanan will play GM Nikita Vitiugov next.
Only IM Aronyak Ghosh got through to round two in the 10+10 portion, while the others went on to play 5+3 blitz. Ghosh won both 10+10 games to upset GM Mateusz Bartel, who seemed to collapse under the pressure. One move, played with 16 seconds left, was the difference between a winning position and a losing one in the first game.
Ghosh is an IM, but he's rated 2520 in classical. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili/FIDE.
Game two was an ice-cold shower for Bartel, who didn't recover from the shock and walked into a one-move knight fork. With these two wins, Ghosh was the second IM to reach round two, and he will play GM Levon Aronian next.
GM Mateusz Bartel walks into a one-move fork, leans back, and resigns! IM Aronyak Ghosh makes it to round two after winning 4-2!https://t.co/iuvtwNFrrE pic.twitter.com/BQWFs3qZCr
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 3, 2025That leaves us with the last five players who clinched matches in the 5+3 portion. They were GMs Daniil Yuffa, Ahmed Adly, Max Warmerdam, Kazybek Nogerbek, and IM Oro.
The young Oro was, for sure, the player of the day after he defeated Brkic, who had participated in three World Cups before this. Oro modestly said he didn't expect to win, but he gained confidence as the match went on: "I was confident when I got to the 5+3 portion. I was happy to get to that portion, because okay, I have more chances maybe."
Oro had a rough start, losing the first game. There, he fell victim to a powerful combination, starting with the exchange sacrifice 37.Rxe7!.
In the next game, however, Oro won on demand to keep the match going. The Argentinian youngster played into the razor-sharp Noteboom Variation, but with reversed colors—an opening we've seen other GMs employ when they have to win. The argument revolved around who's faster: White, with his queenside connected passers, or Black in the center and on the kingside?
GM Rafael Leitao presents the Game of the Day below.
In blitz, Oro won the first game on time (though he was winning by position as well). In game two, he was defending a much worse position, but Brkic got low on time and made a one-move blunder, which allowed Oro to take the match.
The Dutch GM and content creator Warmerdam was another player who crawled out of a tough spot. He lost game one when GM M R Babu Lalith uncorked a surprising rook sacrifice in the endgame.
Warmerdam started on the wrong foot, but ended it right. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili/FIDE.
He then went on to win the first 10+10 game but lose the second. In the blitz tiebreaks, however, he won both games. In the first one, White got punished for overextending the g-pawn in front of his king.
Warmerdam will face GM Awonder Liang next. Yuffa, Adly, and Nogerbek will respectively play GMs Jeffery Xiong, Matthias Bluebaum, and Gukesh Dommaraju in round two.
Nogerbek will go from facing an Indian grandmaster to an Indian world champion in the next round. Photo: Rakesh Kulkarni/Chess.com.
How to watch?
You can watch the event on Chess.com/TV. You can also enjoy the show on Chess24, on Twitch, or YouTube. Games from the event can be viewed on our events page.
The 2025 FIDE World Cup, which takes place from November 1 to 26 in Goa, India, determines three spots in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. It is a 206-player single-elimination knockout tournament with eight rounds. Each match consists of two classical games followed by rapid and blitz tiebreaks if needed. The prize fund is $2 million.
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