In a dramatic tiebreaker in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025, R Praggnanandhaa wins the chess game against D Gukesh. The game took place in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, where R Praggnanandhaa won the Tata Steel 2025 Masters title with his exceptional chess skills and resilience. World Chess Champion D Gukesh looked sad and devastated after the loss of the title.
However, R Praggnanandhaa claimed the maiden title with an intense set of matches that initially was not in his favor. The chess master leaderboard score tied at 8.5/13 for both players, however, at the last minute D Gukesh surrendered his pawn and last knight to Sudden Death leading to R Praggnanandhaa’s win.
The first game for the Tata Steel 2025 Masters title went against R Praggnanandhaa, however, his resilience in the second game won him the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025. Grandmasters Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh faced off for the Tata Steel 2025 Masters title strongly.
However, R. Praggnanandhaa’s major blunder cost him his first game with D Gukesh, however, Praggnanandhaa refused to surrender his second game to the reigning World Chess Champion by employing the Trompowsky technique of navigating through complexities, resulting in a sudden death.
As D. Gukesh got the upper hand and secured a pawn it resulted in intense pressure on Praggnanandhaa’s part. However, the grandmaster stayed put in his strategy resulting in his win. This win created history as this is the second time an Indian has won the Tata Steel 2025 Masters title after Viswanathan Anand’s win in 2006.
A Consecutive Loss For World Chess Champion D Gukesh
This was not the first time D Gukesh came in second place for the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 where he lost to Chinese grandmaster Wei Yi during the tiebreaker. While he initially won the first game of the tournament, however, during the tiebreaker a major blunder caused him to lose the title.
Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa countered chess grandmasters like Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer in their previous matches in the chess tournament to secure their spot for finals. Praggnanandhaa faced off with Germany’s Vincent Keymer in a 7-hour marathon while Arjun Erigaisi showed his form to defeat D. Gukesh in 31 moves.
However, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa both survived with 5.5 points each to face off in the final for the prestigious chess title. The intense game resulted in the reigning World Chess Champion losing his game in Sudden Death in the last 10 seconds. After the loss Gukes seemed visibly shaken and sad however, kept his sportsmanship and shook Praggnanandhaa’s hand.
