FIDE World Cup: Arjun to take on Aronian; Harikrishna meets Jose Martinez

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi will take on an inform Levon Aronian of Armenia while P Harikrishna will have to tackle giantkiller Jose Eduardo Martinez Alacantara of Mexico in the prequarterfinals of the World Cup hereDrubbing Peter Leko of Hungary 20 in the first set of the tiebreak games Arjun has to meet Aronian who has displayed great form coming into the round of 16 and it looks like an evenlypoised match on form even though Arjun enjoys a decent rating advantageFor Harikrishna the biggest challenge so far awaits in form of Jose Martinez who has played impeccably thus far packing off higher ranked players in tandem Harikrishna conceded that he had never played the Mexican in a Classical gameI think probably in some blitz games sometime but I dont think I have ever played him before its time to take some rest and then come back for the next roundWith R Praggnanandhaa also eliminated by Daniil Dubai in the fourth round tiebreaker it is now upto Harikrishna and Arjun to fight for the honours hereThere are three places reserved for the next Candidates from here for the top three finishers and besides Praggnanandhaa no other Indian has made it yet to the next CandidatesIn the 2023 edition that was won by reigning world champion Gukesh there were three Indians in all with Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi joining Gukesh when the history was createdWith most of the big stars falling out of contention Arjun and Wei Yi of China are the last two remaining 2750 rated players left in the fray that gives a feeling that some more surprises might well be in storeThe ouster of Vincent Keymer and Maxime VachierLagrave certainly gave jitters to the fans in the previous round tiebreak and it remains to be seen as to who will fall under the axe in the next oneWei Yi will meet Samuel Sevian of United States in the next round and again starts as a huge favourite In other likely interesting encounters Gabriel Sargissian will has a younger opponent in Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan while another Uzbek star Javokhir Sindarov has to play against Frederic Svane of Germany who had famously beaten GukeshPairings round 5Javokhir Sindarov Uzb vs Frederic Svane Ger Arjun Erigaisi Ind vs Levon Aronia Usa Sam Shankland Usa vs Daniil Dubov FID Alexander Donchenko Ger vs Liem Le Quang Vie Gabriel Sargissian Arm vs Nodirbek Yakubboev Uzb Andrey Esipenko Fid vs Aleksey Grebnev Fid Sevian Samuel Usa vs Wei Yi Chn Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara vs P Harikrishna IndComplete results round 4 Arjun Erigaisi beat Peter Leko Hun 31 P Harikrishna beat Nils Grandelius 2515 R Praggnanandhaa lost to Daniil Dubov Fid 1525 Frederic Svane Ger beat Shant Sargysyan Arm 2515 Matthias Bluebaum Ger lost to Alexander Domchenko Ger 0515 V Pranav lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev Uzb 0515 Andrey Esipenko Fid beat Vincent Keymer Ger 42 Wei Yi Chn beat Parham Maghsoodloo Iri 53 Alexey Sarana Fid lost to Jose Eduardo Martinez Alacantra Mex 0515 Samuel Sevian Usa beat Lorenzo Lodici Ita 54 Maxime VachierLagrave Fra lost to Aleksey Grebnev Fid 1525 Awonder Liang Usa lost to Gabriel Sargissian Arm 1525 Le Quang Liem Vie beat V Karthik 1505 Sam Shankland Usa beat Richard Rapport Hun 31 Levon Aronian Usa beat Radoslav Wojtaszek Pol 1505 Yu Yangyi Chn lost to Javokhir Sindarov Uzb 1525This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever