PANAJI
“I am having a good tournament, and I would like to win the World Cup,” stated American GM Sam Shankland (Elo 2649) after defeating former World Rapid Champion, GM Daniil Dubov (Elo 2674) in the tiebreaks in Round 5 of the ongoing FIDE World Cup 2025 in Arpora on Sunday.
Shankland needed only two tiebreak games to defeat the fancied Dubov, a known player in shorter time controls. Speaking of the significant first tiebreak with white, the American grandmaster stated, “I think it was a pretty good game. I have no clue what the computer says. But I felt I was putting him under a lot of pressure in all phases of the game “ opening game, middle game and end game. Once it got messy, probably he might have been holding on for some time, it was difficult for black “ he was low on time and I thought I was putting him under a lot of pressure and I was quite happy with this game.”
On the defining move of the game, Shankland divulged, “Even after Kf8, Re7, I was thinking I should win this. But I did not want to cash my cheque just yet. I was still thinking I had work to do but when g7 came I thought the game was over.”
On his game plan in the reverse fixture of the 15”+10’ time control, the experienced American grandmaster asserted, “I had prepared something for black. I would have done the same thing if I had drawn the first game as well. If I had lost the first game, I would have probably thrown it all out of the window because I cannot play a symmetrical position like this. But what I did was very solid and it worked just fine.”
On his opponent’s known strategy to take the matches into tie-breaks, Shankland played it down. “Everyone is entitled to their strategy. Basically, I try to win in classical and I am not the guy make quick draws and move on. I even over press with white and got myself into trouble and decline a draw at some point when I really should not have. I want to put pressure in every game I play. I want to fight with white when I have it. I do not consider myself a great rapid player, a favourite but I am not going to roll over,” the 34-year-old GM elaborated.
Shankland might be having a good tournament, in not an otherwise good year, and he is at the single-elimination tournament hoping to fare well. “I just came hoping to play good chess and winning the World Cup is my target. Most likely, I would fail. But I always set my goals as lofty as possible. I never come into the tournament considering when I will exit. I try to win every match,” he explained.
While a FIDE World Cup format is considered brutal and uncertain, with a history of many top players getting eliminated early, Shankland favours the knockouts. “I am a huge fan of knockout tournaments. In general, I think that knockouts are the best way to run any individual sport. If you see any individual sport, the most successfully run in the world by far is tennis and every tournament is a knockout. In chess, it defeats the problem of players making quick draws. It is not that much exciting to play again until someone wins. My mentality is just that I enjoy this tournament a lot,” he reasons.
Shankland considers the FIDE World Cup 2021, his best at the event yet. “In 2021, I was playing better than in this World Cup. I won the classical games against GM Peter Svidler in regulation. Hopefully, I can do better this time,” he stated.
In 2021, Shankland reached the quarterfinals, only to lose on tiebreaks to GM Sergey Karjakin, 4-2. At the FIDE World Cup 2025, he is in the quarterfinals again, and will play Andrey Esipenko (Elo 2693) on Monday, with an aspiration to go much farther in the high-profile chess tournament.
