Amidst those friends and a large 206-player field at the FIDE World Cup in Goa, Ghosh produced the most standout result of the tournament thus far by taking down 12th seed Ian Nepomniachtchi in the second round on Wednesday.

Seeded 117th and rated 2573, the Indian drew with white in Game 1 on Tuesday and went better with black in Game 2, leaving the Russian, rated 2732, shaking his head as an impending defeat loomed.

Nepomniachtchi – or Nepo as he is popularly known – shares the current world blitz championship title with Magnus Carlsen, is a back-to-back Candidates winner of 2021 and 2022, and a two-time World Championship runner-up.

“Definitely, this is the biggest win of my career,” Ghosh told HT. “Defeating Nepo in a match is truly special, and that too in a World Cup. So, I’m quite happy with the result.”

Merely competing in a World Cup, let alone going past Nepo across two classical contests, would have been the farthest in the mind of this soft-spoken GM from Kolkata a few years ago.

Ghosh earned his GM title in 2016, and over the next five years hovered around the 2500-mark in the ratings. He completed his Masters degree in economics from Delhi School of Economics and, seeking financial stability that his chess career wasn’t able to provide, took up a corporate job at a private bank in Mumbai in 2021.

“I had been placed from the college itself. It was around the peak Covid pandemic period, so not many chess tournaments were happening then. Plus, I had some financial responsibility as well,” said Ghosh.

The fun of being suited up for work compared to playing chess was hardly the same, though.

“I mean, after a few years, it became boring,” Ghosh said with a chuckle. “Also, I could see my friends playing in tournaments and I began to miss that feeling once again. And so, I came back to chess.”

The black blazer was never put away. On Wednesday, Ghosh clutched at it, adjusted his shirt collar and pulled back on his chair. By then the writing was on the wall for the Russian fidgeting across the table while the composed Indian went about pressing home the advantage.

Nepo made a bit of a blunder on his 15th move (h3), which Ghosh pounced upon. Black’s position remained superior from thereon and by the 35th move he knew the win was his for the taking. He duly did as Nepo resigned on the 46th move.

Ghosh wasn’t in his seat when the Russian conceded defeat. He returned a few seconds later to Nepo smiling at him and extending a congratulatory handshake.

So unlikely was this result even for Ghosh that he did not look beyond Nepo when the tournament pairings came out, as he told ChessBase India. While Nepo received a first-round bye, Ghosh beat Chinese GM Peng Xiongjian in the tie-breaks in the opening round.

Part of his preparations for the World Cup included playing training games with fellow competitors, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly and IM Aronyak Ghosh.

“I came in preparing as I normally do. But from time to time, I was playing some training games with Ganguly bhai and Aronyak. And, I was also preparing my openings.”

Karthik beats Aravindh; Gukesh, Arjun win

Among the other Indians to avoid the tie-breaks were world champion D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, P Harikrishna and Karthik Venkataraman.

Karthik (2579 rating) too had an upset victory over compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram (2711) with black after the draw with white. Gukesh got the win over Kazakh GM Kazybek Nogerbek after Tuesday’s draw, while Arjun breezed past Bulgarian GM Martin Petrov again on Wednesday.

R Praggnanandhaa will have to turn up for the tie-breaks after playing out another draw with Temur Kuybokarov, as will Nihal Sarin and reigning junior world champion Pranav V, who let slip his advantage over Norway’s Aryan Tari by losing with white.