The four semi-finalists, led by Wei Yi, will battle for three 2026 Candidates places – none of them has reached this stage before
The $2m World Cup in Goa will be remembered as an event where established stars were humbled and knocked out by supposedly lesser lights.
At 26, China’s Wei Yi is the oldest in Friday’s semi-finals. He was once a prodigy, renowned for his brilliant attacking style and the youngest to surpass an elite 2700 rating, but then opted to take a six-year break from chess to study economics and management, which he says he does not regret. He made a statement return in 2024, winning the “chess Wimbledon” at Wijk aan Zee, and the 2026 Candidates is his main target.
The World Cup pairings matched Wei in the quarter-finals against the last surviving Indian and No 2 seed, Arjun Erigaisi. After three draws, Wei won a 79-move marathon in which Erigaisi played on until checkmate.
Wei’s Russian semi-final opponent Andrey Esipenko, 23, is his country’s leading young grandmaster, who is now challenging the dominance of the older generation led by Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexander Grischuk. In the quarter-finals he eliminated the last American, Sam Shankland, with the rare plan against the Philidor 1 e4 e5 2 Nf3 d6 of b3 and Bb2 followed by queen’s side castling.
