On Sunday, february 2, in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated World champion D Gukesh in an exciting tiebreak to win the Tata Steel Masters 2025. Since Viswanathan anand in 2006, Praggnanandhaa was the first indian to take home the first prize at the Tata Steel Masters.
 
After 13 traditional rounds, Gukesh and Pragg, the two leaders in the 14-player round-robin competition, were deadlocked. By the way, Pragg and Gukesh finished with 8.5 points apiece after losing their most recent classical games on Sunday. After defeating Grandmaster arjun Erigaisi in 31 moves, Gukesh—who had been undefeated until the tournament's final round—lost a classical match for the first time as World Champion. In Round 13, Pragg was defeated by Grandmaster Vincent Keymer in a long match.
 
In the two-game blitz tiebreaker on Sunday, Gukesh won the first game with white pieces and drew first blood. Gukesh won the title with just a draw in the second blitz tiebreaker. But to win the main championship, Praggnanandhaa overcame adversity to win both blitz games and surprise the world champion.

Tata Steel Chess' Dramatic Final Day
After a thrilling tournament final day, the two up-and-coming chess players had to play out a tiebreaker. Gukesh and Pragg lost their individual games in the tournament's last round, leaving them level in points.
 
On the last day of the event, Vincent Keymer defeated Praggnanandhaa with flawless technique, while Gukesh lost his first match as World champion due to a strong performance by his countryman arjun Erigaisi, who had been struggling throughout the competition.

In the two-game blitz tiebreaker on Sunday, Gukesh won the first game with white pieces and drew first blood. Gukesh won the title with just a draw in the second blitz tiebreaker. But to win the main championship, Praggnanandhaa overcame adversity to win both blitz games and surprise the world champion. 

The competitors competed in two three-minute games in the tiebreaker, with each move lasting two seconds. After two rounds of tie-breaks, Gukesh and Pragg were still deadlocked on points, forcing them into a Sudden Death. Even in the last ten seconds, it appeared like the game would end in a tie, but Praggnanandhaa won it thanks to a last-minute error by Gukesh's team.
 
Thai Dai Van Nguyen of Vietnam, meanwhile, took home the Tata Steel Challengers 2025 championship. Pragg's sister, GM R Vaishali, placed ninth in the 14-player tournament, while divya Deshmukh came in 12th.
 
 
 
 
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SIBY JEYYA

03/02/2025 07:58 AM