R. Pragyanandadha won Tata Steel Chess Masters, World Champion D Gukesh in a tie -breaker – R Pragnanandhaa Wins Tata Steel Chas Masters Stuns World Champion D Gukesh Tie Breakers Ntc
Grandmaster R Pragnanandhaa (R Pragnanandhaa) won the Tata Steel Masters 2025 on Sunday, 2 February to defeat world champion D Gukesh in an exciting tiebreak in Wijk AAN ZEE. Pragyanandadha has become the first Indian to win the top award at Tata Steel Masters after Vishwanathan Anand in 2006.
At the round-robin event of 14 players, two players Gukesh and Prague were at the end of the 13 classical rounds. Both Prague and Gukesh lost their last classical games on Sunday. Gukesh was undefeated till the last round of the tournament, losing the classical match for the first time as a world champion.
On Sunday, Gukesh won the first game in the two games Blitz Tiebreaker. Gukesh needed only a draw in the second blitz tiebreaker to win the crown. However, Pragnanand returned from behind, winning both Blitz games and surprised the world champion and won the title.
Two emerging stars of the world of chess world were forced to play a tiebreaker after the last day of the tournament. Gukesh and Prague were on par after losing their games in the last round of the tournament.
Gukesh lost his first game as a world champion, the credit for which his compatriot Arjun Arigasi performs brilliantly, which was very poorly performing in the tournament by that time. While Pragnananda was defeated by Vincent Kimer, whose brilliant technology shines on the last day.
