Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi said it’s a pity that he couldn’t make a deeper run at the Chess World Cup in Goa after his third-round defeat to USA’s Sam Shankland, but attributed the poor result to inadequate training as compared to his previous showings at the global showpiece event in 2021 and 2023, when he reached the quarter-finals on both occasions.

‘Felt I was better than him’

Despite losing 2.5-3.5 after the second set of tie-break games against Shankland, Gujrathi, 31, felt he played better than his opponent. However, Gujrathi also reckoned he handled the result better than he has done in the past. “I dealt with it [loss] better than my previous tournaments. Generally, I am very upset when I lose. This time I was upset because I felt I was the better player throughout the match. So, it did bother me, but I moved on from it. Probably it helped that I was surrounded by my loved ones, who helped me get over it,” said Gujrathi, adding that he only had himself to blame for the result.