PANAJI : GM Arjun Erigaisi and P Harikrishna came up with near perfect play with white while world champion Gukesh D played out a draw with black pieces in the opening game of Round 3 in the FIDE World Cup 2025 here on Friday.

Arjun, the highest ranked Indian in the fray, defeated Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov in 30 moves while Harikrishna once again showed his command on preparation to beat GM Daniel Dardha of Belgium in 25 moves to put themselves in the drivers’ seat to reach the fourth round.

Arjun had won both his matches in the second round after getting a bye in the first, never looked in any trouble against Vokhidov and the only time he pondered over his move for more than 10 minutes was when he was on the verge of winning and was looking at ways to finish it quickly and make

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