PANJIM: India's S L Narayanan dumped Steven Rojas of South Africa and became the first player to qualify to the round of 128 in the first set of tie-break games of the FIDE World Cup 2025 that ended here on Monday.

Playing the Sicilian defense in the first game as black, Narayanan, known for his skills in the faster version of the game, crashed through white's defenses with a finely chalked plan and followed it up with a remarkable victory in just 22 moves with white to stamp his authority in what was anyway presumed to be an uneven clash.

Diptayan Ghosh proved superior to Peng Xionglian of China as he won both his games in the first set of tiebreaker to move ahead.

The Indian from Kolkata was in his prime in the first game of tiebreaker as he won with white and then capitalised on an

See Full Page