Peter Leko, “I am playing maybe my final individual tournament”
The FIDE World Chess Cup 2025 is taking place October 30 – November 27 in India. It will feature 206 players in 8 knockout rounds of classical games. The World Cup serves as a critical part of the FIDE World Championship cycle, with the top three finishers qualifying for the 2026 Candidates Tournament, which determines the next challenger for the World Chess Championship title. Live games and live video broadcast will be daily on Chessdom (make sure to check the main page for the latest coverage) , while additional live coverage will be available on Chessdom’s Twitter/X page
After two rounds, the World Cup has seen multiple “Cupsets”, including the elimination of Nepo, Hans Niemann, Wesley So, Volodar Murzin, Ray Robson, Chithambaram Aravindh, etc. Even the top seed Pragg was on the verge of elimination, but saved a marathon match. But round 3 was no different as Frederik Svane eliminates Gukesh from the FIDE World Chess Cup. Additionally, two more 2700+ players are out of the competition – Anish Giri was eliminated by Alexander Donchenko, and Nodirbek Abdusattorov was knocked out by Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara.
One of the nice surprises at the FIDE World Chess Cup 2025 in Goa, India, is the legendary Hungarian Grandmaster Peter Leko. His fairy tale (in his own words) continues and he is now in round 4 of the World Cup, playing vs local superstar Arjun Erigaisi. Peter Leko gave an extensive interview for ChessBase India, where he said, ” I am very much looking forward to playing Arjun Erigaisi. This is a big privilege. I am coming back from the retirement. I am playing maybe my final individual tournament. I will play the Chess Olympiad 2026, that is fixed, next year for my country but individual – I have no idea. “
How does it feel to advance to the fourth round of FIDE World Cup 2025?
Thank you very much. Well it’s like a fairytale. It’s of course very very pleasant. I am not having any expectations, not looking forward to anything. I just try to play the next game. I am very happy to be here and playing here in India with all this crowd after the game, this cheering, all the signings, it’s just always so nice to see that people care. There are so many fans. It’s a pleasure to play here.
Can you tell us about the third round match?
Well it was a very tough match. Usually in a World Cup, when you look at the final score, you think ah okay, that’s it, somebody dominated the other. I never feel this way. Every single match has its own life, own story. The first game, yesterday’s game was a tremendous battle. It was a very interesting game. When I checked with the computer last night out of curiosity, I wanted to save energy but my mind was just still thinking about different positions. I would say that I played a game yesterday which could be analyzed without engine for one week, to try to understand what was going on. We had to kind of rely on our intuition during the game. Finally, in time trouble, he could have held me to a draw at one point but he missed his chance and then I converted with a nice technique in the winning endgame. And then there is no time for celebration because first of all you are completely exhausted, you know that your opponent is very dangerous. He plays many lines. I knew, I kind of expected some Italian but I also knew that there are 200 different versions of them. No matter how much I am gonna check, he will come up with the one and the only that I have no time already to check. This is what happened.
To tell absolutely honestly, at 2:46, 14 minutes before the start of the game, I was still thinking like, okay I am running late. Should I close the engine or should I open this file. You know I was thinking because I knew that this could happen but I already thought I cannot risk it that I am getting late because if you open the line, the file, then it will go on with hundreds of moves.
So I just closed the laptop and okay let’s get to the game and I will play. If I don’t remember anything, because when you are not playing every day. I am not playing already for 5-6 years. My last individual tournament was in 2019, the Grand Swiss, six years ago.
Okay, I did play the Olympiad last year and also European Team Championship but I always feel like it’s never enough. Just couple of games to get into my real knowledge. So I am actually feeling very happy that with every single game I am getting more and more into my stuff, and I fight and then we see what happens.”
Well I thought I am retired. I am the Coach of Vincent Keymer, I am doing the commentary in different events. So basically, I feel like I don’t have a single free day in my life. There is always something going on.
The Hungarian Federation really made some incredible efforts to bring me back before the Olympiad. If that would not have happened, I’ll not be standing here for sure. Our President and our government, made really big contribution, so I came back, Richard Rapport also came back. We have a national team who is fighting.
Then suddenly came the news during the Grand Swiss while I was working day and night for Vincent. The news that, Rapport suddenly qualified by rating because many top players refused to finalize their participation. This give the federation the chance to nominate a player. They would like me if I would be ready.
Then I thought like, yes well I did not think about it. I am completely exhausted from all the hard work that I am doing with the preparation for the Grand Swiss but okay if my country is asking me to play and it’s also in India. With all these crazy boom, since I am kind of a retired player, I feel like I am a chess fan, I appreciate it so much. I am just so happy to see this that in India, this is how it should be. Chess is booming. Everybody goes crazy, everybody is following.
Whenever I see Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Erigaisi and all the other guys, I just think about Viswanathan Anand. I was fighting with Vishy for I don’t know 20 years or something. For me, he is one of the absolute greatest of all times. This is his legacy, what he left behind. I just wanted to still be one more time be part of it. So I decided to come to Goa.
During the game, do you think about explaining stuff like when you do commentary for top events, instead of your audience, to yourself?
Only sometimes when the time trouble is approaching, then I think like yes, how nice it is to do the commentary. Every game has so much to tell. As a professional player, someone who played on the top for so many years, I know exactly in every single situation, with how much time and like this, who things how and why. Then to be a bridge between audience and between the player. I always enjoy this role very much. That’s why I also try not to use the computer. Once you see the computer evaluation, you are completely in a different planet and you are not a player anymore. Because as a player, this is exactly obvious, the crazy challenge that you are in the dark. You don’t know whether this is good or bad or whatever you try to calculate as much as you can but there is always this uncertainty behind every single decision. That’s also for me one of the most beautiful things that we never know exactly, is it good or not and we just fight.
We have heard praises from you for Arjun Erigaisi during various online and over-the-board events. What are your thoughts on the fourth round match against him?
Yeah, I am very much looking forward (to it). This is a big privilege. I am coming back from the retirement. Playing maybe my final individual tournament. I do gonna play the Olympiad, that is fixed, next year for my country but individual – I have no idea. So it’s a privilege to play against one of the absolute best right now. Arjun is I don’t know, number 4/5 in the world. All these live ratings, few points here and there, does not make any difference for me. In my mind, it’s always like, aha, he is like a top 5 or top 6 and that’s it. I want to enjoy it. It’ll be a big pleasure to play a match like this and then we see what happens.