Ian Nepomniachtchi has cleared the air on his controversial criticism of the 2025 Chess World Cup, which was held in Goa. The Russian GM lost to Diptayan Ghosh after getting a bye into the second round and was left fuming after his defeat. He criticised the hotel conditions for players, calling the venue (Resort Rio) substandard, with poor rooms, bad food, and poor service. Nepomniachtchi recently appeared on Greg Mustreader’s YouTube podcast, where he compared the 2025 World Cup in Goa to other tournaments, and in a less harsh tone than before.
“Goa is a great place, first of all, with a good climate, it has everything. It’s a beautiful place, but they chose probably one of the worst locations, one of the worst hotels. I said with officials from FIDE. They said: “Well, yes”, but when we arrived, it was too late to change anything.” Of course, the hotel leaves something to be desired”, he said.
“Well, really, it leaves much to be desired. I guess you could compare it to… I played in Cuba: in terms of climate and the conditions. In Cuba I played at the Capablanca Memorial. You’re playing in this tournament for the cause absolutely, I think I even mentioned it in mentioned it in the video. You’re playing for the cause, there are a few “tired” hotels, and… But there, in my opinion, the food is better in Cuba. I prefer this food because it has fewer spices and other things. I think that even Andrey Esipenko, who has come quite far, to go to Cyprus later, said: “At some point, we couldn’t eat anything at the hotel, we drove to restaurants.”
“But you can go to restaurants once you’ve settled in a bit. I actually thought that I would just move to another hotel after the first round, because… But I didn’t have to. In a way I managed to move to another hotel after the first round. Or rather, after the second one, but for me it was the first, that is.
‘Unacceptable’: Ian Nepomniachtchi
Slamming the hotel once again, he added, “It’s clear that some people like complaining more, someone less, especially when the tournament is going badly. But the conditions, in my opinion, were unacceptable. I mean, this is a tournament that is held once every two years. And, probably, it was possible to choose a hotel for this event with ratings higher than 6 on Booking. I’ve never seen such rankings on Booking to be honest. There are probably, there are even lower ones. On a scale of 0 to 10, “give a rating,” well, 6, I would say, not solid.”
The 35-year-old also drew the ire of Indian chess fans. Meanwhile, Dutch GM Anish Giri even publicly rejected such allegations, claiming that there was no issue with the hotel conditions.
“I don’t think it’s because of that, in general, but you know… As they say, “every cook praises his own broth”. It’s clear that criticism is not always taken kindly. There is a certain phenomenon that Indian Twitter, Indian social networks are super active. That is, there, for any reason… First and foremost, due to the number of users, right? Imagine what would happen if China also had Twitter, and, I don’t know, not Weibo. If China also had had common social networks, then we would probably see a large number of users who actively express their position”, Nepomniachtchi said.
The owner of Resort Rio has also responded to Nepomniachtchi’s criticism. Earlier, the owner rejected the accusations, pointing out that issues such as humidity and mosquitoes can’t be avoided in Goa.
