Praggnanandhaa won the 87th Tata Steel Chess tournament for his most impressive result of his career so far. The path to victory was not at all smooth and he had to show great determination on the final day. Praggnanandhaa shared the lead with World Champion Gukesh and I don't think anyone predicted both players would go down to a defeat.

Gukesh was well beaten by a resurgent Arjun Erigaisi who said his confidence returned after beating Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Round 12. The game was a Petroff with opposite sides castling, Erigaisi always seemed at least equal, there was a weird exchange sacrifice which was supposed to be a bit better for Gukesh but after that it was all one way traffic and Erigaisi won in only 31 moves.

Abdusattorov could himself have got into a tie for first with a win today but was held by Pentala Harikrishna. Praggnanandhaa by this stage had troubles of his own as he was being tortured by Vincent Keymer. In the end Praggnanandhaa was given a chance to draw but he instead blundered a piece a few moves later and lost. The whole position was fiendishly difficult for both players and they had very little time too, mistakes were inevitable. This meant there was a tie for first between Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh and a blitz match for the title. Praggnanandhaa lost the first game but won the next two to secure the title. Very impressive considering the small recovery time between losing the classical game and the tie-breaks.

The only other winner in the Masters was Max Warmerdam who beat Fabiano Caruana who definitely had a tournament to forget. Fedoseev-Wei Yi, Giri-Van Foreest and Sarana-Mendonca were all drawn.

Panesar Vedant won the Tienkamp and qualifies for the Challengers next year and Thai Dai Van Nguyen beat Benjamin Bok in a must win game where he risked all in complications just before first time control and it paid off for him. This means Nguyen plays the Masters next year but spare a thought for Aydin Suleymanli who also scored 9.5/13 after beating Irina Bulmaga and only lost out on tie-break coefficients.

My thanks to Michiel Abeln for the photos, notes to the games and indeed help throughout the tournament.

Tata Steel Masters Final Round 13 Standings: 1st Gukesh, D 8.5pts, 2nd Praggnanandhaa, R 8.5pts, 3rd Abdusattorov, Nodirbek 8pts, 4th Fedoseev, Vladimir 7.5pts, 5th Giri, Anish 7pts, 6th Wei, Yi 7pts, 7th Harikrishna, Pentala 6.5pts, 8th Caruana, Fabiano 6pts, 9th Keymer, Vincent 6pts, 10th Erigaisi, Arjun 5.5pts, 11th Van Foreest, Jorden 5.5pts, 12th Sarana, Alexey 5.5pts, 13th Mendonca, Leon Luke 5pts, 14th Warmerdam, Max 4.5pts.

Tata Steel Challengers Final Round 13 Standings: 1st Nguyen, Thai Dai Van 9.5pts, 2nd Suleymanli, Aydin 9.5pts, 3rd L'Ami, Erwin 8.5pts, 4th Yakubboev, Nodirbek 8pts, 5th Bok, Benjamin 8pts, 6th Gurel, Ediz 7.5pts, 7th Svane, Frederik 7.5pts, 8th Nogerbek, Kazybek 7.5pts, 9th Vaishali, Rameshbabu 6pts, 10th Lu, Miaoyi 5.5pts, 11th Pijpers, Arthur 5.5pts, 12th Oro, Faustino 3.5pts, 13th Divya, Deshmukh 3.5pts, 14th Bulmaga, Irina 1pt.

Tata Steel Tienkamp Final Round 9 Standings: 1st Panesar Vedant 6pts, 2nd Slagboom, Leandro 5.5pts, 2nd Grutter, Tim 5.5pts, 4th Smeets, Kobe 5pts, 4th Tudor, Henry Edward 5pts, 6th Sofronie, Iulian 4pts, 6th Lohia, Sohum 4pts, 8th Beukema, Stefan 3.5pts, 8th Holzke, Frank 3.5pts, 10th Zwirs, Nico 3pts.

87th Tata Steel 2025 (13)

Mark Crowther (Sun Feb 2 21:52:00 2025)