ARPORA, Nov. 2 -- Team Herald [emailprotected]

The experienced Surya Shekhar Ganguly, GM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Karthik Venkatraman scored comfortable victories; M Pranesh played out a draw to advance to the second round, while IM Aronyak Ghosh defeated GM Mateusz Bartel of Poland to force a tie-breaker in the FIDE World Cup 2025, here, on Sunday. The 42-year-old Ganguly, playing back, knew that Ahmadzada had to take risks to draw level after losing the opening game and the Indian took control of the match by attacking from his opponent's king side and forced him to resign after just 28 moves and became the first Indian to advance to the second round, where he will face French GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France. Karthik, who had drawn h...