2025 FIDE World Cup Round 3 Tiebreaks: Vachier-Lagrave Wins Marathon Match In Armageddon

Thirty-two players remain in contention to win the 2025 FIDE World Cup ahead of round four. The following players advanced after winning round-three tiebreaks on Sunday: GMs Wei Yi, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Richard Rapport, Yu Yangyi, Sam Shankland, Sam Sevian, Alexey Sarana, Andrey Esipenko, Nodirbek Yakubboev, Daniil Dubov, and Karthik Venkataraman.

In the longest match, Vachier-Lagrave was on the brink of elimination twice against GM Vladislav Artemiev. Both times, he won on demand and then won the match with White in armageddon.

Round 3 Tiebreaks

Games, Results, and Bracket.

After the first two games, played at the 15+10 time control, seven players advanced: Wei, Rapport, Yu, Karthik, Sevian, Sarana, and Yakubboev. 

Wei and Rapport both won rook endgames in game one, and then held a draw in game two, to secure their matches. Against Rapport, GM Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus had chances to draw even two pawns down, but the endgame was too difficult to handle with under a minute. 

Rapport next survived a 125-move game, with a rook against rook and bishop and no pawns.

Wei and Yu, who both survived the tiebreaks, are the two Chinese players left (there were four at the start). Wei said of the game he won against GM Benjamin Gledura: “He had great chances to fight, even for the win, but… in the endgame, in time pressure, he blundered finally and I won by luck.”

Sevian (playing his fifth World Cup at the age of 24), Sarana, and Yakubboev were the three players to win with 2-0 sweeps, but it’s rarely as one-sided as it looks on paper. Speaking of the crazy first game where he sacrificed his knight in the endgame, Sarana told Chess.com, “This 2-0 doesn’t say anything about the match because it was absolutely random.” He explained, “I even didn’t understand what he missed. I just played move by move and suddenly I’m winning.”

I just played move by move and suddenly I’m winning.

—Alexey Sarana

Jus four matches went to the 10+10 portion, and all but Vachier-Lagrave vs. Artemiev were decided. Dubov, Shankland, and Esipenko were the three players to advance from this segment.

The match between Dubov and GM Georg Meier was, in terms of openings, the most peculiar. After a high-accuracy draw in game one, Dubov offered a draw on move six with White in the next game, perhaps trusting his chances in the faster time controls—a strategy that did work.

With the white pieces again, Dubov then flipped a switch and played the Frankenstein-Dracula Variation of the Vienna Game, stylistically the complete opposite of a six-move draw. Meier, who’s better known for playing the French Defense, was caught off guard, if judging by his time usage and an early mistake in the opening.

Still, the German-born Uruguayan GM found a string of only moves to fight back into the game. 13…Bxb5!! is an impressive find, leaving his rook hanging in the corner. 

The complicated game raged on, but Dubov’s time advantage paid off in the end. He was down a piece but with compensation when Meier blundered. Rafael Leitao goes over the Game of the Day below. 

After losing the first game with the white pieces, Shankland won on demand with Black to reach the 10+10 games. He then made a draw and won with Black again in the second time control.

Throwing preparation out the window, he played the Philidor Opening and “won easily” in his first black game. Shankland said, “I just thought, okay, let’s do this again! Like, that was easy! But unfortunately for me, he played much, much better with White the second time.” Indeed, the American defended a worse position from the opening, but he got his chance much later in the endgame.

“It’s my favorite tournament,” said Shankland of the World Cup. Comparing chess to tennis, he added, “I think a knockout system is the best way to run absolutely any individual sport. The most successful individual sport, by a very wide margin, is tennis, and I don’t think there is a single tennis tournament that isn’t a knockout.”

I think a knockout system is the best way to run absolutely any individual sport. 

—Sam Shankland

He likened this year’s World Cup to the one in 2021 when he said, “I got a bye round one, won a very clean match round two, and got lucky to win a tiebreak in round three. So far, we’re following the trend.” 

The longest match of the day was Vachier-Lagrave vs. Artemiev, and it was largely contested in the endgame. The queens were traded in all but one of the games. After a long day, the Frenchman said, “It took all I got in myself to come back and to win it,” and, “I would gladly have avoided the two must-win games, but I knew this could go all the way.”

After two draws in the 15+10 and another two draws in the 10+10, every game was decisive for the rest of the match. Artemiev won the first game, and Vachier-Lagrave bounced back in the second. For the most part, Vachier-Lagrave was much faster, and Artemiev collapsed even from better positions when he had little time.

Game one of the 5+3 was a rollercoaster, where either side could have won the rook endgame. Just as quickly as Vachier-Lagrave achieved a winning position, he got a losing one, and Artemiev blitzed out the winning 46…Kd7!. 

Vachier-Lagrave then won on demand with the black pieces in the next game, continuing the match.

Artemiev then squeezed out a nice win, with 96-percent accuracy, in the first 3+2 game, but MVL struck back for the second time. Artemiev was better at one point, but with little time, he eventually traded into an equal rook endgame. GM David Howell suggested that keeping pieces on the board and repeating with 26…Bf3 may have been a simpler way to hold the draw.

Vachier-Lagrave made the most of the time advantage, eventually won a pawn (though the position was still equal), and found the incredible and only move 42.Rb3!! to win on demand again.

Finally, Vachier-Lagrave won the armageddon game his opponent bid two minutes and 42 seconds for the black pieces. With 4:02 himself, Vachier-Lagrave pressured his opponent on the clock and vanquished the Berlin Defense. Artemiev played essentially a perfect game, but took too long, and was unable to hold the balance while playing on the two-second increment.

Round four, after a break, will feature 32 players. GM Lorenzo Lodici is the lowest seed.

Who’s Eliminated? 

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.

Previous reports:

• Round 3 Game 2: World Champion Gukesh Eliminated By Frederik Svane; Giri, Abdusattorov Also Out
• Round 3 Game 1: Martinez Upsets Abdusattorov With Black Pieces
• Round 2 Tiebreaks: Lodici Knocks Out Niemann, Rasmus Svane Wins In Armageddon
• Round 2 Game 2: Harikrishna Sacs Queen; Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Aravindh Eliminated
• Round 2 Game 1: Arjun, Keymer, Wei, Mamedyarov, Vachier-Lagrave Among Early Leaders
• Round 1 Tiebreaks: 12-Year-Old Oro Among 20 Winners In Tiebreaks
• Round 1 Game 2: IM Shixu Wang Pulls Upset, 20 Matches Go To Tiebreaks
• Round 1 Game 1: Saleh Plays Attack Of The Day, Favorites Prevail In Game 1
• 2025 FIDE World Cup Pairings, Venue Revealed
• Divya Among 6 Players Awarded World Cup Wildcard Spots; Firouzja Not In