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Home » Chess News » Events » 87th Tata Steel 2025 » Gukesh starts with a very fortunate win against Giri in Round 1 of Tata Steel Masters 2025

Round 1 Summary

My thanks to Michiel Abeln for photos and some notes to the games with brief comments from the players. The PGN file (displayed below) contains these notes.

All eyes started on Gukesh who played his first game since becoming World Chess Champion. The game itself was a wild fighting game where both players attacked their opponent's king. The opening was a Reti/Reversed Gruenfeld and the players were soon out of book. Gukesh started the real complications with the dubious 14.Bh4 giving up a bishop for two pawns. A few moves later Gukesh would have had enough for the piece had he played 20.Rad1, instead 20.f4 stoked the fires again but left Giri better and after 24.Kh1? Giri was winning. Quite a lot of mistakes followed according to the engine as the assessment volleyed between winning for Giri and tending to equality. 33.h3? Be4! were moves played with players down to the increment and in sight of the winning line Giri made the decisive blunder 35...Qb6? allowing 36.Qf3! taking the queens off instead of 35...Ng4! when he would have won.

Another game where the players fortunes swung wildly was Luke Leon Mendonca against Vincent Keymer in the Two Knights Defence. It's my understanding that players prefer the Two Knights because it avoids some lines in the Giuoco Piano but the irrational positions that result are really hard to remember, even for the very best players. On move 23 Keymer chose 23...R5e6 instead of 23...R8e6 he was apparently still trying to remember his preparation. Had Mendonca played the rather obvious 26.c6 he probably would have won, instead 28.h3?! allowed Keymer right back in the game and the very odd 31.Rc1? (31.Qe3 or 31.Qxh5 both are equal) allowed 31...Qxh3 and the game was immediately over.

The final game to finish was Pentala Harikrishna's win against Arjun Erigaisi. Harikrishna was a last minute replacement for Santosh Vidit who withdrew for personal reasons. Harikrishna played solidly and Erigaisi seemed to be trying a bit too hard. Harikrishna gave up his Queen for two rooks and a pawn and a long grind ensued. Harikrishna won on move 63.

The remaining games were drawn. Nodirbek Abdusattorov came very close to a win against Praggnanandhaa. After some really remarkable complications Abdusattorov was winning by move 27 but the position still remained difficult to play and in time trouble he frittered his advantage away by move 31. 32.Bxa5? was a bad move but 34...Rec8? restored equality and the game was drawn.

Jorden van Foreest against Vladimir Fedoseev was a fluctuating struggle in a very unusual line of the Petroff.

Wei Yi played a pretty dull variation against Fabiano Caruana's Petroff and the game was drawn without incident. Max Warmerdam and Alexey Sarana drew in an interesting Reti

Pairings

87th Tata Steel Masters Wijk aan Zee (NED), 18 i-2 ii 2025																cat. XX (2726)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Gukesh, D	g	IND	2777	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
2.	Harikrishna, Pentala	g	IND	2695	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
3.	Keymer, Vincent	g	GER	2733	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
4.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2803	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2751
5.	Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2768	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2741
6.	Wei, Yi	g	CHN	2751	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2803
7.	Praggnanandhaa, R	g	IND	2741	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2768
8.	Fedoseev, Vladimir	g	SLO	2717	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2680
9.	Van Foreest, Jorden	g	NED	2680	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2717
10.	Sarana, Alexey	g	SRB	2677	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	½	.	.	.	½	2646
11.	Warmerdam, Max	g	NED	2646	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	*	.	.	.	½	2677
12.	Erigaisi, Arjun	g	IND	2801	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2731	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Mendonca, Leon Luke	g	IND	2639	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 18, 2025)
Gukesh, D	- Giri, Anish	1-0	42	A05	Various
Harikrishna, Pentala	- Erigaisi, Arjun	1-0	63	B72	Sicilian Dragon
Wei, Yi	- Caruana, Fabiano	½-½	31	C67	Ruy Lopez Berlin
Praggnanandhaa, R	- Abdusattorov, Nodirbek	½-½	46	A21	English Opening
Van Foreest, Jorden	- Fedoseev, Vladimir	½-½	46	C42	Petroff's Defence
Warmerdam, Max	- Sarana, Alexey	½-½	51	A07	Barcza System
Mendonca, Leon Luke	- Keymer, Vincent	0-1	31	C58	Two Knights Defence

Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (NED), 18 i-2 ii 2025																cat. XII (2547)
					1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	0	1	2	3	4
1.	Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	g	CZE	2668	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	1
2.	Yakubboev, Nodirbek	g	UZB	2659	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	1
3.	Gurel, Ediz	g	TUR	2624	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	1
4.	Vaishali, Rameshbabu	g	IND	2476	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	1	.	1
5.	Lu, Miaoyi	m	CHN	2429	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	.	1
6.	Svane, Frederik	g	GER	2664	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2614
7.	Suleymanli, Aydin	g	AZE	2623	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	2583
8.	L'Ami, Erwin	g	NED	2614	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	2664
9.	Bok, Benjamin	g	NED	2583	.	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	*	.	.	.	.	.	½	2623
10.	Nogerbek, Kazybek	g	KAZ	2514	.	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	.	0
11.	Divya, Deshmukh	m	IND	2490	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	.	0
12.	Pijpers, Arthur	m	NED	2474	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	.	0
13.	Oro, Faustino	m	ARG	2447	.	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	.	0
14.	Bulmaga, Irina	m	ROU	2386	.	.	0	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	.	*	0

Round 1 (January 18, 2025)
Nguyen, Thai Dai Van	- Pijpers, Arthur	1-0	38	A49	King's Indian Defence /c2-c4
Gurel, Ediz	- Bulmaga, Irina	1-0	33	D37	QGD 5.Bf4
Lu, Miaoyi	- Nogerbek, Kazybek	1-0	44	C44	Scotch Gambit
Suleymanli, Aydin	- Bok, Benjamin	½-½	30	C53	Giuoco Piano
L'Ami, Erwin	- Svane, Frederik	½-½	59	B90	Sicilian Najdorf Variation
Divya, Deshmukh	- Yakubboev, Nodirbek	0-1	48	B54	Sicilian Rauzer
Oro, Faustino	- Vaishali, Rameshbabu	0-1	43	D78	Gruenfeld 3.g3

Tata Steel Chess Tournament Round 1 Commentary

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

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