Andrey Esipenko plans to get drunk tonight.
The previous couple of days have been a whirlwind for the 23-year-old Russian. He was getting ready to eliminating China’s Wei Yi within the semifinal tiebreaks of the FIDE Chess World Cup 2025, however a catastrophic one-move rook blunder despatched him crashing out of the title race. Just some hours later, Esipenko confronted the a lot more durable job of leaving that heartbreak behind to struggle for the ultimate Candidates spot. Nonetheless, he rolled up his sleeves and delivered a counterpunch, beating Uzbekistan’s Nodirkbek Yakubboev to e book his ticket to Cyprus.
“I don’t have too many feelings; I’m simply very glad,” mentioned Esipenko after qualifying for the Candidates. A relaxed undertone coloured his solutions, as if he had been too exhausted and elated for deep evaluation of his personal video games.
“I’ll get drunk,” he laughed. “We (his second David Paravyan and him) discovered a brand new restaurant that we visited after the sport towards Wei Yi. The music was so loud we couldn’t even communicate to one another. We’ll in all probability return there to have enjoyable.”
Having acquired a bye within the first spherical, Esipenko performed 14 classical video games and a complete of 30 video games throughout completely different codecs, together with shorter time-control tiebreaks. He gained 5 of the 14 classical matches, misplaced one, and drew eight. Except for his straight wins in Classical matches over Nijat Abasov within the second spherical and Yakubboev within the third-place playoff, each one among Esipenko’s rounds went to a tiebreak, which compounded his exhaustion.
“On this match, I performed a whole lot of completely different openings with black, so I additionally needed to give a whole lot of vitality to preparation,” he defined. “Let’s say, if I performed only one opening, like Wei Yi performs the Petrov Defence… however I performed principally all the things. I needed to put together extra, and that’s why I’m so exhausted. I’ve by no means felt so exhausted in my life.”
After dropping to Wei Yi, happening tilt was not an choice for Esipenko. He needed to reset and face the tactically astute Yakubboev the very subsequent day. Right here, a suggestion from legendary tennis participant Novak Djokovic helped him get again into the groove.
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“I believe after the sport towards Wei Yi, I watched a Novak Djokovic interview,” he revealed. “He mentioned that everyone can have dangerous moments, however what’s essential is the way you react afterward. One dangerous second doesn’t imply something; you simply should proceed. You could have extra video games to come back. If one thing dangerous occurs, it’s essential to react nicely.”
One other factor that helped him overcome the loss was his favorite Premier League membership, Arsenal, thrashing their London rivals Tottenham Hotspur 4-1 within the North London derby on Sunday.
“I used to be having dangerous ideas for a number of hours after the semifinal loss,” Esipenko admitted. “However then I watched the Arsenal sport towards Tottenham, the place we utterly crushed them. I used to be very glad about that, and I felt like, ‘Let’s simply end this match someway… and qualify for the Candidates.’”
Andrey Esipenko defeated Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Yakubboev in FIDE World Cup 2025 third place playoffs. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza/FIDE)
Earlier than confirming his qualification, Esipenko was too “scared” to even take into consideration the Candidates. “Now I can lastly have some ideas about this,” he mentioned. “To be trustworthy, I didn’t anticipate to play within the Candidates. I anticipated it once I was youthful, however I didn’t know what I might really feel, what sort of feelings I might undergo if it grew to become actuality. To expertise it now’s simply loopy.”
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Flashback of 2023
The rook blunder towards Wei Yi additionally introduced again the heartbreak of his 2023 FIDE World Cup exit, the place he missed a mate-in-three towards India’s D. Gukesh within the fourth-round tiebreaks earlier than blundering a bishop and getting knocked out in a similar way.
“I had some flashbacks of the final World Cup, the place I additionally blundered a bishop to Gukesh, in the event you keep in mind,” Esipenko recalled. “In essential video games, I’ve had this downside, however I don’t know what to do with it as a result of it’s not about chess, and it’s additionally not about psychology.”
“I felt actually good through the sport towards Wei Yi, however then one thing simply occurred. I consider it’s as a result of I used to be too exhausted. Even on this match towards Yakubboev, I used to be extraordinarily exhausted.”
Whereas the Candidates spot means the world to him, Esipenko insisted that not qualifying wouldn’t have modified his path. He mentioned, “Sure, it means lots. But when I hadn’t certified, I might simply proceed working. It wouldn’t actually change something for me.”