Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa won the Tata Steel Masters 2025, beating world champion D Gukesh in a thrilling tiebreak in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands on Sunday, February 2.

D Gukesh suffered his first defeat since being crowned the youngest world champion in chess history in December, with compatriot Arjun Erigaisi outsmarting him in 31 moves to sign off from the Tata Steel Chess tournament with back-to-back wins.

After losses in Round 13, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa played out a tie-breaker in the 2025 Tata Steel Chess Masters, with the former coming good in sudden-death to win.

Despite the loss, Praggnanandhaa will play tie-break games of shorter duration against Gukesh after the two ended with identical 8.5 points each. The other contender Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan was denied the full point by P Harikrishna, who played a hard fought draw.

Tata Steel Chess 2025 is set for an exciting conclusion in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands with D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa in pole position to become only the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to win the prestigious tournament.

World Champion D Gukesh played out a draw with Jorden van Foreest of Holland, while Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat Alexey Sarana of Serbia as the two Indians shared the lead after a thrilling day at the Tata Steel Masters here.

For Gukesh, this was the second year running when he tied for first position and lost the tiebreaker. In the previous edition last year, Gukesh had lost to Chinese Wei Yi

Gukesh’s first loss as world champion was followed by Pragg’s defeat, leaving both tied at the top. Pragg won the tiebreaker against Gukesh to clinch title

GM R. Praggnanandhaa held his fort against reining World Champion and compatriot D. Gukesh for a come-from-behind win in the tiebreaks to claim the Tata Steel Masters 2025 in Wijk aan Zee on Sunday.

Leaders Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh have 8.5 points each at the end of the 12th and penultimate round of Tata Steel Masters in the Netherlands on Saturday.