Praggnanandhaa Beats Gukesh In Playoffs, Wins Tata Steel Chess 2025

In a match between countrymen, the first time Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa won the Tata Steel Masters title of his career came against world champion D Gukesh, by whom he had been defeated four times earlier. This made him prove that the Indian chess powerhouse in international competition was still invincible despite all his anxieties and weariness.A bespectacled 19-year-old Chennai lad, born in a city that became the birth-place of Indian Chess, won to overcome deficit while defeating 18-year-old third-ranked player 2-1 in the tie-breaker of the event’s 87th edition held here on Sunday.After both of them had suffered a loss in the 13th round and stood with 8.5 points, it seemed this would just be another finale- Arjun Erigaisi, too, from India, defeated Gukesh. Vincent Keymer of Germany did that to make sure Praggnanandhaa went to dust.The drama has been so natural for two young players wanting to win every single game played in the tournament.”I am still shaking, it was such a crazy day. I don’t know how to express. I didn’t really expect to win. Somehow things went my way,” Praggnanandhaa said in the official tournament website immediately after his win.Asked if the day was the most stressful in the chess career for him that dates back to his two years,.In the first game of the tie-break, Praggnanandhaa essayed Benoni in reverse colors and at one stage seemed to have easily equalized in the middlegame.But Praggnanandhaa did a mistake that cost him the whole rook and Gukesh had other ideas as he continued to try and prevailed.In the second game of the tiebreaker, Praggnanandhaa chose the Trompowsky opening. Gukesh had a win here, and was lightly favored to achieve it playing black.”I was just trying to relax, to rest a bit. It was a very difficult game. Against Vincent I didn’t play anywhere close to the level I was playing here. I should buy something for Arjun. At some point I thought Gukesh was better,” quipped the former world youth champion.”Of course, this is the highlight. When I arrived here, I wanted to win but the field was quite strong. I did not give much thought about it until yesterday,” he said.”I am completely exhausted. I was also quite tired. I just want to get some rest now,”Just that waiting for the tie-break was sufficient for Praggnanandhaa to wait for a forced error from Gukesh and then he launched and seized the pawn first. Technical skills were pretty good after that to ensure seeing out the regular blitz games 1-1.The match went into sudden death where Gukesh won a pawn after some creative play on the queen’s side after Praggnanandhaa drew white.Praggnanandhaa tried to hold a worse result considering the sudden death had two minutes and thirty seconds time for white and three minutes for black.Gukesh lost his temper in the fight and let go of a piece and then his lonely knight just when the position seemed totally drawn and another game was again around the corner.With flawless technique, Praggnanandhaa won his first Masters title and the full point.Gukesh held the top position for the second consecutive time but lost on tie-break. Chinese Wei Yi had defeated Gukesh in the previous edition.