Goa from the shoulders: victory in the quarterfinals will bring Esipenko closer to the candidates tournament

Andrey Esipenko, the vice-champion of Russia for the last two years, is fighting to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, which is taking place in Goa these days. Daniil Dubov could have become another quarterfinalist of the tournament, but the champion of Russia – 2022 unexpectedly lost to American Sam Shankland. Now Esipenko and Shankland are playing for a ticket to the semifinals (the first game ended in a draw), which will bring one of these players closer to the candidates tournament (it is necessary to get into the top 3). Arjun Erigaisi (India) – Wei Yi (China), Javokhir Sindarov (Uzbekistan) – Jose Martinez Alcantara (Mexico), Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzbekistan) – Alexander Donchenko (Germany) meet in the other quarterfinals. In parallel, the women's World Cup starts these days, in which the Russian national team will also take part. In Spain, our team will be represented by the optimal composition and will be one of the favorites of the tournament.

On the white stripe

Daniil Dubov won three consecutive matches on tiebreak. He also easily drew two classic games with the sturdy middleweight Shankland and was considered the clear favorite in the short control. But this time, luck was not on the side of the rapid World champion (2018). In the case, the American won the first game in white, and the Russian was forced to win back to order. However, the opponent failed to create any problems. Thus, the Olympic champion of the U.S. national team reached the debut quarterfinals of the World Cup, again surprising the chess community. Earlier, Sam passed Vasily Ivanchuk, Vidit Gujrati and Richard Rapport.

And Andrei Esipenko will have to fight with such an unexpected quarterfinalist. The Russian grandmaster, who started the tournament with a dry victory over Nijat Abasov in the classics (2:0), won three tiebreaks in a row, beat Idani Puya (3.5: 2.5) from Iran in the third round, Vincent Kaymer (4:2) in the fourth, and compatriot Alexei Grebnev (2.5:1.5). 19-year-old Grebnev, who successfully competed at the 2025 World Cup (knocking out Maxime Vachier–Lagrave), lost the first game in rapid, but did not give up. In the second game of the tie-break, he managed to get a 4-on-3 rook, but Esipenko was accurate in defense.

The Russian vice-champion of the last two years told about the secret of his successful performance in India after his success in a mini-match with Kaymer.

— I'm determined in advance that if I get out, well, okay, I'll go home. This is my strategy, and it's working great. Even before the games [with Vincent], I checked the tickets home just in case. This is already a tradition: before the second game against Idani, I also checked the tickets, there was a direct flight to Moscow, and I was even pleased," Esipenko told the FIDE press service.

Thus, Esipenko is the only Russian player who has the opportunity to qualify for the 2026 candidates tournament. But to do this, he needs to beat Shankland and then get into the top 3. If you look at the live ratings, Andrey is in 40th position in the classics, Sam is in 55th. In rapid, the American is 44th, the Russian is 52nd. In the blitz, Esipenko is 40th, Sam is 87th. The odds are about equal, as shown by the first classic game, which ended in a draw. But I really want the native of Novocherkassk to finally win at the top level.

Recall that Esipenko lost the decisive game to Anish Giri in the "Big Swiss 2023" (a draw almost guaranteed Andrei entry to the 2024 Candidates tournament), then lost first place to Amin Tabatabai in the last round and Vlad Artemyev in the tiebreak of the 2024 superfinal at the Aeroflot Open 2024.

This streak of failures was interrupted at the end of last year, when Andrey won the biggest tournament of his career so far — Qatar Masters 2024. In total, 138 people took part in the representative "Swiss", including Arjun Erigaysi and Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and Esipenko became the sole winner (7.5 points). At the finish line, he managed to win three games in a row (against Ritvik Radj, Saleh Salem and Shant Sargsyan), and in the last round he managed to stand in the most important game against Erigaysi. "I wanted to win something already. To prove to myself that I can play the decisive games well," Esipenko said in an interview with SE after the Doha tournament.

Now he needs to demonstrate this quality again. There is very little left before the goal.

Royal Knockout: what are the chances of Russians at the World Chess Cup

Three tickets to the 2026 Candidates tournament will be played in Goa at once.

For gold

In parallel with the World Cup, the Women's World Team Championship will be held in Linares from November 17 to 24. During the draw, 12 teams were divided into two groups, approximately equal in strength depending on the average rating. A round-robin tournament of five rounds will be played in each group. The top four teams from each group advance to the playoff stage, where the winner is determined in knockout matches.

Russia (average rating — 2496) is in a group with the USA (2406), Kazakhstan (2381), Azerbaijan (2366), Spain (2339) and Peru (2207). China (2473), Georgia (2430), Ukraine (2399), France (2353), Uzbekistan (2336), India (2334) will meet in Group B.

Our strongest girls will compete in the Russian team (perhaps only Valentina Gunina is missing): Alexandra Goryachkina, Ekaterina Lagno, Polina Shuvalova, Leia Garifullina, Anna Shukhman and Olga Girya. The senior coach of the Russian women's national team and the captain of the team is grandmaster Sergey Rublevsky.

"In general, the return of our national teams and their admission to the largest team tournaments is an important moment," Alexander Tkachev, Executive Director of the Russian Chess Federation, told Izvestia. — I am sure that the admission of the men's team, as well as a full-fledged return to the international arena with a flag and anthem, is just around the corner. I hope that on December 14, the FIDE General Assembly will make a positive decision on this issue. As for the women's national team, of course, we expect our team to have a great result in Spain. An excellent team headed by experienced coaches went to Linares.: By Sergey Rublevsky and Evgeny Nayer. Our girls miss team starts and are capable of a lot.

The last time our women's national team participated in the World Team Championship was in 2021, winning gold. Goryachkina, Lagno, Shuvalova, Alexandra Kostenyuk and Alina Kashlinskaya played for Russia at that time. Kosteniuk currently represents Switzerland, Kashlinska represents Poland.